Changed my mind
by Maggiejumps4cheese
Summary: Mmm just some mac.
1. Chapter 1

**sometimes the only solution to writers block is to start something new :)**

 **also, i wrote this on notepad...so please excuse all typos and glaring grammatical errors. i just had to write again because it had been so long and i was letting my broken computer get me down. it isnt perfect but its done! one shot? maybe...maybe not? let me know what you think!**

Mac sped to the cave, his insides like some kind of explosive mixture that had officially become unstable. He felt molten hot, poisoned by the girl and his feelings for her, enraged at even the possibility of loving her. This is exactly what he had been trying to avoid, the very reason he had sent her away. He didn't want this, this attachment to her, it would be the fucking death of him.

He had tried to deny his emotions when he realized they were thriving; tried starving them by chasing her away, drowning them in dark liquor, but nothing had worked. For a while he tried to lie to himself and say she didn't matter. He ignored her phone calls and her worried brow when she tried to speak to him at the bar. It had seemed easy enough when he made the plan, all he had to do was revert back to his old methods and he would eventually forget about her. Except no matter how mean to her he was in public or how many other women he fucked, he couldn't get the goddamn girl out of his head. His heart had nearly stopped when Devon had casually mentioned her presence at a party in the canyons. All of the sudden, now that he thought she could be in danger, she mattered very much.

"What?" Mac had barked in response, turning to face his half brother but keeping a grip on the girl he'd been dancing with. "an you just left her there?"

"aint alone" Devon smirked back. "she's with mikey"

"mikey?!" Mac had practically roared. He had let go of his date then, hardly even registering when she pawed at his arms to get back inside them. "are you fuckin' kiddin' me?"

Devon shrugged, bored now and trying to sidestep Mac to get to the bar.

"what?" he asked his much taller sibling. "what do you care? thought you were done with her"

He said it like a statement, a question they already both knew the answer to and therefore didn't need to ask. Mac realized he was wasting time then, and he pushed past both him and the forgotten girl to get to the door of the bar.

Mac's heart rate was accelerating faster than it had ever done in his life, even with his history of amphetamine abuse. Devon wasn't wrong after all, and that's what scared him. Mac had uttered those exact same words in front of all his friends and her less than a week ago, so of course that scumbag Mikey would assume she was fair game. Without the threat of Mac retaliating he doubted Mikey would hold back with her, and he dreaded the thought of the man putting extra effort into fucking with her just because Mac had more or less given him permission.

His chest pinched uncomfortably as he was forced to remember the look on the girls face after he'd said it. Confusion? Hurt? he shook his head, trying to clear it, trying to run from it. He knew the look was betrayal, and it bore into him like a slow moving drill, making him gasp as it got deeper, impossibly close. He had led her happily into the lion's den when it suited him but then abandoned her there. He had run away and left her defenseless, scared and unable to admit how he felt. Whatever happened next, what ever state he found her in, the blame lay on him and he knew it.

When Mac arrived at the mouth of the cave, there were several trucks and cars parked outside. Part of him relaxed, knowing the worst activities took place when only the skeleton crew remained, but he wasn't going to be able to calm down until he saw her. He raced through the corridors he didn't need a flashlight for, hearing mens laughter and feelings his hands clench into fists. The world around him took on a red tint and he could hear his own blood heating, a raging torrent in his ears. This was a side of himself he knew intimately, a beast that walked on two legs imitating a man. He heard the roughness of his vocal cords as if he were someone else, a roar from deep in his chest that vibrated through his entire body. The room fell still. All its moving parts; legs and torsos and heads and the throbbing beat of terrible music unblended so that he could see it all clearly. She wasn't here. And then, even before he could label the relief he felt in his head, a new and terrible thought dug its claws in. If she wasn't here, then where was she?

"Mac!" a voice broke his concentration. He felt his head tick to the side as the tether broke, as he came back down to reality and into his humming body. "whats up?"

He turned, focusing his eyes on who had spoken but unable to relax his hands. The voice belonged to one of friends, Jameson, someone Walter had brought into the cut that Mac had immediately taken to. The Man had always been a good subordinate, and Mac was glad it was him who had approached him instead of anybody else.

"where is she?" he heard his own voice say, thick with gravel from years of smoking too many cigarettes.

"who?" Jameson asked.

Mac felt his eyes close, felt the hackles near his neck stiffening in pent up aggression. He was a dog frothing at the mouth and waiting for its leash to slacken. He was about to explode, and he wanted to make sure it was the right person in front of him when he did.

"tell me where they are" he said as he opened his eyes, hardening them so Jameson couldn't see the panic in them. "right fucking now"

Reading his friends expression, Jameson nodded and swallowed hard. He knew full well that the next thing he did was about to unleash hell on one of his own, but he also recognized his lack of options. Struggling slightly not to cough, he brought his one arm up to point towards a corridor that led to an opening further back in the cave.

As if on cue, a scream erupted from the yawning mouth of rock that Jameson had just identified. Mac's feet slid slightly on the sandy floor when he took off, but he recovered quickly. He knew nothing good happened in those poorly lit caverns. The best he could hope for was that it wasn't too late.

Edith could feel her world getting fuzzy around the edges. Mikey hadn't liked it when she screamed, no, not one bit, and now she was struggling to even get the air needed to remain conscious. Her hands scraped uselessly at his, her nails trying to draw blood even though his grip had forced it all from his fingers. When she coughed he squeezed tighter, and she felt her knees buckle beneath her. Her body slumped slightly but he didn't have any trouble holding her weight up.

She heard his rough laughter, felt him pull her in closer, right up against him so that his knee could force its way between hers. He licked the side of her face and she grimaced, his breath foul and wet. Mercifully, she felt her eyes begin to roll backwards, and she was just about to embrace the darkness when she abruptly fell away from the man, landing hard on the cavern floor.

She lay there for a moment, choking on dust and dirt, waiting for the kick that was surely coming. Her body braced and she squeezed her eyes shut, holding her breath and trying to steel herself as best she could. When the kick never came, when all Edith could hear was a kind of rustling or gasping sound, she chanced a look up at her attacker.

It took a moment for her brain to register what she was seeing. She hadn't expected to see Mac, all six foot fuck of him, holding Mikey up against the wall with his arm braced against his windpipe. Honestly, it was probably the last thing she would have expected to see, and it took a full minute for her mind to catch up and match the image for her. When she realized who it was, who had come to help her, she couldn't help but smile. Not only did he care, at least a little, but now this fucker Mikey was going to get what was coming to him. She felt happy, despite the pain radiating through her.

Mac held the man there until he heard something crack. Mikey had long ago passed out from lack of oxygen but it wasn't until he had broken something that Mac felt satisfied. Huffing loudly, his chest heaving, he let the man's weight dead drop to the floor. He wasn't sure he had killed him, but he was content knowing he was down for the count.

It was then that the moment turned awkward for him. The violence was the easy part. What was he supposed to do with the girl now that he'd rescued her? Edith pushed herself up on her arms, letting her long hair cover her face so that he couldn't see it. She wanted him to leave suddenly, wanted to be alone to lick her wounds, maybe suffocate this guy Mikey for all her trouble, anything but have to face Mac looking the way she did.

Without touching it, she could tell her nose was broken, and the fact that she could hardly open her left eye let her know that it was bruising and swelling shut quickly. She sniffed a little, wincing as the pain lanced her face and caught herself wishing for a moment Mac had just let the guy finish the job.

"thanks" she coughed out, rubbing her throat as if she could reclaim it.

She expected him to leave then, but he surprised her and reached down to grab her bicep, hauling her up to her feet and waiting until she found her balance before letting go.

"got sum kinda deathwish girlie?" he asked her, tilting her chin up carefully to appraise her face. "or do ya just like gettin' the shit kicked outta ya?"

She started crying then, couldn't help herself, and he let her chin go so she could turn her face away. Now he'll leave, she thought to herself, now he'll run for sure. Except he didn't. Instead he wrapped an arm around her shoulders, squeezing her into him before he stooped to hook his arms behind her knees and swing her up into his arms.

He didn't say anything as he beat a path back to his truck, just walked back through the throng of people in the main cavern and then back down the unlit corridor. Edith had her face tucked into his chest and her tiny puffs of warm breath were saturating the shirt right over his heart. The pocket of heat forming there made him feel better. The girl was okay, he hadn't been too late.

"s'all right" he told the quivering form as he deposited her in the passenger seat of his truck.

Cold without him, she shivered in the night air. Now that he wasn't holding her, now that he could see the damage to her face and the way she shook, Mac felt his anger gaining momentum again. For a second he thought about going back to stomp on Mikeys face a few times. It was tempting, but ultimately Mac was unwilling to let the girl out of his sight. He settled for the sound straightening her nose made, pleased when the blood rushed out to greet him. It was warm and smelled like life, he would have licked at it if she hadn't been covered in dust from hitting the floor of the cave.

He kissed her instead, pressing his lips hard against hers and feeling the slickness between them. She grunted and jerked back, her hand coming up to his chest.

"stop Mac, i can't"

"sure ya can" he growled back at her, his voice confident and coaxing. "an yer gunna too"

She looked up at him. He could feel her breath beating against his own vibrating lips like a wave, steady and cyclical. The hesitation hung between them like a fog you could dissipate with a wave of your hand. She was clearly trying to convince herself not to, running through a list of reasons in her head, but Mac could hear her sex drive revving up as though her body were an engine.

He nudged her face with his, opening his mouth against hers but not completing the kiss. The tip of her tongue darted out, licking him quick, and he moved forward to practically devour her. He kissed her hard, holding the back of her head when she tried to pull away, and sucking at the blood covering her mouth. She twisted suddenly, gasping for air, and Mac realized she couldn't breath through her nose.

"yer all kinds a fucked up sweetheart" he chuckled at her, leaning back into his own seat to start the truck. "what am i ever guna do with ya"

Edith didn't answer him. She was still having trouble believing that he was even here, even kissing her and acting like he liked her. For over a month he had been avoiding her, and that was when she was lucky. Other times, mostly when he was drunk, he would go out of his way to be deliberately mean to her. It wasn't enough that he had dismissed her. He had gone the extra mile to humiliate her in front of half the town, and Edith wasn't exactly ready to trust him, even if her body had other plans.

"just take me home Mac"

"s'what im fucking doin'" he snapped at her. "so shut the hell up already"

They drove in uncomfortable silence. Every pothole the truck raced over had Edith whimpering next to him, and Mac was getting more and more irritated. Not only was he kicking himself for snapping at her, but he was also struggling not to bark at her again. He hated the weakness, hated that she couldn't just suffer silently like he always had to. More than that though, he was raging that it had come to this. He should have just protected her like he wanted to before, not shunned her out into the wilds of the world just because he was pissed at catching feelings. This was his fault, always would be.

When they got to his house, Edith wouldn't get out.

"i said take me home Mac, this isn't it"

He was standing just outside the passenger door, trying hard to control his temper and not just drag her from the vehicle.

"Eddie-" he began.

"don't fucking call me that"

That did it. He reached in and grabbed her, ignoring the way she screamed at him and carrying her up the rotting steps into his house. He maneuvered her kicking form through the halls until he reached his bathroom. Then he set her on her feet and leaned his massive shoulders against the door so she couldn't get out.

"take yer clothes off"

"you've got to be kidding me" she laughed incredulusly. "there's no fucking way"

Without missing a beat, Mac stepped forward and caught her wrist in his grip, holding her still so that he could rip the shirt off over her head.

"ow Mac!" she yelled, cupping her hand over her nose to try and protect it. "fuck!"

He ignored her, dropping down to undo the button on her jeans and then yank them down her legs. Now that most of her clothing was discarded, Mac reached around her to turn the shower on. He let the steam fill and warm the room around them before he reached out to touch the strap of her bra.

"don't" she whispered, tucking her chin down and away.

Mac let his hand drop.

"i aint guna hurtcha Eddie" he said softly. "not like him"

She nodded, her eyes shut tight against the tears forming there, and Mac brought his hand slowly back up. He ghosted his fingers over her shoulder, pushing the strap gently to the side and leaning in to kiss her neck. She sucked her breath in and held it, but she didn't pull away when he quickly undid the snap and let the garment fall to the floor. Before she could resist, he pulled her small frame up into his, running his hands up and down her exposed back and hooking his fingers into the waistband of her underwear. She lifted her legs when he lowered them, stepping out and keeping her face hidden in his chest.

"ya aint got nuthin ta be ashamed of Eddie" he told her, hugging her naked body against him. "dint do nuthin' wrong. s'my fault"

She choked out a sob into his shoulder, soaking the t-shirt he was wearing with snot and tears. He let her cry, holding her there for a minute until she started to quiet down, before ushering her into the shower he'd started for her. Once she was in he took his own clothes off, balling them up and throwing them into the corner he'd had kicked hers into.

The blood from her nose ran down her body, diluted by the water but still a beautiful, brilliant pink. As much as he liked the blood though, the sight of what someone else had done to her face wasn't a turn on for him. He gathered her up in his arms again, smoothing his hands over all her available flesh and feeling the way she melted against him. It wasn't hard to gently turn her after that, and he kept his mouth latched onto her neck as he guided her hands up to press against the shower wall.

He leaned back then, lining her hips up with his and rocking into her. He might not had been able to stand the sight of her face but this view was just as he remembered it, and he felt his dick start to stiffen when he held her there against him.

Eddie gasped slightly but didn't jerk away when he started to slowly press into her. This was something she had wanted for a long time now, and she wasn't about to pass it up. It wasn't just his attention she craved, although that was a rare and cherished thing. No, mostly she had missed his dick. It was thick and heavy, hard but surprisingly smooth and wonderfully warm. It was almost like an entity separate from the rest of him; it certainly had the confidence to stand apart, that was for sure. She arched towards it despite the pain in her body, letting it fill her up slowly the way she liked.

Mac let her. He planned on pumping her full of painkillers after this so he could really throw her around, but for now he let her go her own speed. Instead of grabbing her hips the way her wanted to, he brought both hands around to the front of her, one reaching up to twist her nipple while the other traveled down to her clit. He ground himself against her, not so much drawing out to push back in but more so she could feel him fully inside her moving from side to side. He knew she liked that.

When she started moaning he finally pulled out of her. Slow at first, inching out so he could watch the way her pussy hugged the shaft of his cock, and then slamming back into her. There was a satisfying 'smack' as their skin collided over and over, the water and blood lubricating everything he could get his hands on. He liked the way the meat of her ass jumped when he slammed into her, and when she threw her head back against his shoulder, he took the opportunity to make a fist in her hair and hold her rigid against him.

"you like that?" he asked her, knowing she wouldn't answer. "you like when i make you take that cock girl?"

Her core started to get impossibly hotter. She didn't know why him talking to her like that got her going so much, but at the moment she didn't really care. Instead she just did her best to nod, her body bouncing with the way he pumped in and out of her.

"i know you do. So fuckin' needy" he grunted, timing each of the words with his thrusts, making her cry out.

His voice was right next to her ear, soft and hot like crushed velvet. The rasp in his throat was what did it, the roughness of it unspooling her insides and sending white light rushing out from her center. He sucked behind her ear and kept constant pressure on her clit as she came, holding her tight up against him so he could feel her ride it out. He came quick after that, the spasming of her around his dick pushing him over the edge. He kept her trapped in his arms until they both found themselves panting back on earth.

"fuck" he breathed out, resting his forehead against her shoulder and letting the water bead down his face. "can't remember why i wanted to give that up"

He felt her body stiffen then, and he realized he'd touched a nerve that had sent her back on the defensive.

"i made a mistake" he added quickly, forcing the words out before his ego could stop them; holding her when she tried to pull away. "aint done with ya"

Edith held her breath, waiting to see if there was more, and then let it out slow. She knew that was the most she could possibly hope for, the best this man could do, so she decided to accept the offer. She thought of what she should say next, but before she could come up with anything he coughed and exited the shower.

"wait 'ere" he told her "i'll be right back"

He came back with clean clothes for her, drying her off with a scratchy towel like she was some kind of puppy and then clumsily dressing her. She could have done it herself but she let him tend to her. For once, she felt well taken care of, and she wasn't about to rush it.

"C'mon" he said, grabbing her wrist and pulling her behind him into the living room.

He pushed her down onto the couch and tossed a blanket onto her, letting it settle over her lap as she leaned back. She still couldn't believe she was here, that Mac was being this nice to her and trying to make sure she was comfortable. It was a far cry from tailing after him like a lost, unwanted child, and she wondered if it would last.

He motioned for her to open her palm and then deposited a handful of pills into it when she did.

"trying to make me sick?" she asked, attempting a laugh but grimacing at the way it felt. He knew perc's were her favorite. "i don't need this many"

"aint gotta eat 'em all at once" he said flopping down next to her and swiping a few from her hand to toss into his mouth. "guna be here a while"

Eddie swallowed three and put the rest on the table in front of her. She stole a sip from Mac's beer to wash them down and then snuggled against the other side of the couch, knowing full well that the man beside her had limits. Contact made him uncomfortable, that was why he always had to be in control whenever they fucked. For now, it didn't matter to Eddie. She was content just to be sharing the same space as him. This was a blissful feeling, to be so thoroughly fucked and waiting for the high of the narcotics to spread through her.

"lemme know when they kick in" He told her, lifting the remote up to activate the netflix screen on his T.V "then we can go for round 2"

mmm best day ever.

i know mac prob doesnt have netflix but a girl can dream about the perfect situation cant she? minus the broken nose. :)


	2. Chapter 2

Eddie fell asleep during the movie. Mac wanted to wake her, but just this once he decided to let her sleep. He shut the T.V off and threw the remote away from him, hearing it clatter to the floor. The girl didn't weigh much, and it was easy for him to gather up the dead weight of her sleeping body and carry her into his bedroom. He dropped her onto the mattress and shut off the light before crawling in beside her.

Her breathing was easy and rhythmic, the sound of the percocets working their magic. Mac felt a slight buzz as well but it was the dreamy kind, when you take just enough to feel like you're covered in a nice blanket and that everyone is your friend. He wasn't itchy or faded, just satisfied the night had turned out the way it had. After throwing his arm around her waist and dragging her tight up against him, he slept.

xXxXxXxXx

When Mac woke up alone in the pale blue light of morning, he rolled back over. The girl didn't have a car so he wasn't worried. She had probably gotten up to get more painkillers or maybe watch T.V on the couch. He was going to sleep for a few more hours and then have her make him something to eat. Or maybe they would go out, he thought, as he yawned and dug his face back into the pillow. It was Sunday, which meant fried chicken down at the bar, and it would be good to have everyone see her with him again. He wanted whoever hadn't heard about his stunt at last nights party to know she was once again off limits.

Except he couldn't fall back asleep. Something was bothering him; something wasn't right. He realized he couldn't hear her. In fact, there was no noise coming from anywhere in the house. The T.V wasn't on, the shower wasn't running…Mac shot out of bed, suddenly fully awake, and yanked on a random pair of pants he found crumpled on the floor. He moved through all the rooms of the house, checking each one carefully until he arrived in the living room. Sure enough, her pile of clothes was missing from the bathroom floor, and the pills she hadn't eaten were gone.

"little bitch" Mac sneered, grabbing his pack of smokes off the table and heading for the front door. He swung it open and was instantly hit with a blast of cold morning air, making him physically recoiled as if punched. It had been a long time since he had been up this early, and he had forgotten just how cold the desert got at night. The sun hadn't fully risen yet, the sky only just beginning to lighten, so the temperature was still low. Cursing her again, Mac reached back into his house and grabbed a jacket, throwing it over his naked chest but not bothering with the zipper.

On the way down the steps he spotted the tracks her size seven converse sneakers had left in the dust. He furrowed his brow down and followed them, wondering what she could have possibly left in his truck...When he realized what she had done he hollered loud enough to send the birds fleeing from the nearby trees and bushes. The little bitch had taken his keys.

xXxXx

Edith could hear the roar of his truck gaining on her. She had figured he'd be able to hot wire the thing, but it was all she could come up with. She wasn't stupid enough to do any kind of lasting damage to the truck. Mac would have surely killed her if she had done anything to the engine, not that she would have any idea how to fuck with it anyways. Glancing around, she chose a dune to hide behind and scampered over it. When his truck slowed down to a crawl and then stopped though, she knew the jig was up.

"kin see yer footprints Eddie" He called out to her. "don' make me git outta this truck"

Sighing, she went towards him, climbing back over the sandy dune and standing by the edge of the road with her arms crossed.

"well ya guna get in er what?"

Edith looked in the directions she had been walking towards town. She knew it was miles, having been made to walk it before, so she might as well let him give her a ride home. Sighing again, knowing she looked fucking terrible, she ducked her head and cut around the back of his truck to the passenger side. When she climbed in she kept her face turned away from him, trying to hide the damage. It was then that she noticed what he'd done to the inside handle.

"oh ya like that sweetheart?" he sneered at her as he whipped the truck back around. "i did that just fer you"

"What?" she reached for it as if it could still release her, yanking on it although it was clear he had twisted it off of its hinge. "What the fuck Mac? take me home!"

"why?"

Edith opened her mouth but then shut it. She didn't have a good answer for that one. She was currently living in a pay by the week motel room that was in the same lot as the bar. There wasn't anything to rush back to, she had just wanted to spare herself the pain of having him brutally kick her out again.

"i guess, i just figured -"

"ya dont get ta just sneak off" he grunted. "'specially not after i was so nice ta ya"

He drove them back to his house.

"gimme the keys"

"they're in your mailbox Mac, i didn't take them" she huffed out.

"well why'd you hide 'em at all?" he scoffed. "tryin' ta piss me off? cause yer doing a great fuckin' job"

She stone faced him, not flinching at his voice in the slightest. The adrenaline from the night before had long worn off, replaced only with exhaustion. She didn't want to argue with him. Instead so went back into his house and headed towards what counted for a kitchen. Mac watched her go, bringing his thumb up to absentmindedly chew at the edge of his thumb nail. After a moment, and a quick trip to the mailbox to retrieve his keys, he followed her inside.

xXxXxXxXx

Twenty minutes later they were back on the couch; a cup of what Mac had insisted was coffee in Ediths hands, and a cigarette between his lips.

"so how long do you want me to stay here?" she asked, bringing the scalding mug of bitter black liquid up to her lips. She wasn't really expecting him to have an answer, she just needed to figure out a way to make him see that it was outrageous, the idea of not letting her leave.

"dunno," he replied without turning to look at her. "a while i guess. Ya owe me fer savin' yer ass"

Edith closed her eyes as she swallowed, the 'coffee' burning her throat all the way down. She was trying to remember the things he had said last night in the bathroom. Had he been kind? or had he just not been a total asshole? She couldn't remember. It was like the steam from the bathroom had clouded her very memory; everything was covered in a thick haze.

"so what do you want then?" she coughed, leaning forward to set the undrinkable sludge down on the table in front of her. "that shits awful by the way"

He watched her from behind a thin wall of smoke. Her face looked worse today, but he had known to expect as much. The swelling had gone down slightly but the bruising was becoming magnificent. Her left temple was beginning to look like a nebula, a beautiful tie-dye of green, yellow and reddish purple. Suddenly, an idea came to him.

"be my slave for a week"

She snorted in laughter and then immediately winced, touching her face protectively.

"deserved that" he grumbled, reaching out to extinguish his cigarette in her full cup of coffee. "and ya didn't let me finish"

She watched the filter of his Marlboro bob up and down in the center of her mug. Finally, but only after he'd cleared his throat to get her attention, she brought her eyes up to his and raised her brows so that he would go on.

"live with me for a week and do my shit for me."

Her eyebrows went from annoyed to confused, twisting up and making her eyes squint.

"i'm not cooking meth for you Mac"

That actually made him laugh out loud, a rare phenomenon, and he snickered for a few moments behind his hand before he was able to get a hold of himself. He didn't realize it but everytime he chuckled or did anything even remotely similar to smiling, he always brought his hand up as a shield. Edith wondered why he couldn't ever just be happy.

"yeah no shit Ed" he laughed, "ya'd kill us both within seconds if i let ya near that table"

Unsure whether or not she should be offended, she stayed quiet so that he would continue.

"no, i mean, do my shit here for me"

"what? like cook and clean?"

"among other things, yeah"

Her eyes narrowed at that.

"what other things?"

"use yer imagination sweetheart" he said in a fake, sweet, voice. "yer a smart girl, aint cha?"

He slammed his hand down on her knee, making her startle, and laughed again at the squeak she made.

"i'll even go to the store and get the shit you need" he told her, rising to his feet. "you wanna come and show off your new look?"

She scowled up at him and he took pity on her. As much pity as he could at least. He didn't care if she was happy, not really, he just didn't want to let anyone else have her. He was like a child that wouldn't share his toy, only becoming interested in it again because someone else had tried to take it.

"painkillers are in the top drawer" he said pointing towards his room. "help yerself but stay in this fuckin' house. i'll be back in an hour"

xXxXxXx

Edith listened to his truck speed away. After stealing a few more of the pills he had told her about, taking only one this time so she didn't get all foggy and pocketing the rest, she went to the front door to slip her shoes back on. 'screw him' she thought to herself, smoothing her hands over her hair and pulling it up into a messy bun. 'I'm not fucking staying here'

Except when she got to the front door she couldn't find her shoes. She knew she had left them right here after she'd come back inside, remembering the way he had kicked them aside so he wouldn't trip on them, but now they were gone. It only took her a second to realize he had swiped them so she wouldn't leave on foot again. Joke was on him though, she'd happily rip her soles to shreds if it meant getting away from this guy. Her ire had been building all morning, and he'd only fanned the flames when he'd carted her ass back here.

Using her anger as momentum, she pulled open the wood door and prepared to push through the flimsy screen one beyond it. As soon as she did though, a gigantic force hit it, effectively knocking her backwards and onto her ass.

Mac's dog, Duke, the one usually locked up in his run, was digging frantically at the edge of the screen door. It wasn't latched to anything, and had the dog had thumbs he would already be in the house with her, no doubt with its jaws attached to her neck. Duke wanted in. He was barking and the spit from his mouth was hitting her ankle. She kicked the heavier, wooden door shut just as he got his snout inside, making him whimper and draw back. Once his head was removed she could force it back closed, and even though the dog couldn't possibly open it now, she still threw the lock on it when she got to her feet.

"FUCK!" she roared, kicking the door for good measure and instantly regretting it.

To console herself, she took two more of the pills and retreated back to the couch. It wasn't worth getting mauled by that stupid mutt. She would just have to be patient and make her escape once Mac re-kenneled him. Why the fuck was he even insisting she stay ? Wasn't this the same guy who humiliated her by imitating the way she had moaned for him in front of the entire bar not 4 nights ago? The one who had refused to even look at her, much less hear what she had to say? She huffed, sinking further into the couch and letting the pills melt her stress away. By the time Mac returned it was well past the hour mark, and Edith had fallen asleep in front of the T.V.

She awoke to the sound of banging and yelling. Confused, she got to her feet and pressed her palm against her forehead. When she looked around and realized where she was, she remembered how she had locked the door against the dog. Moving slow, in no hurry to let the man in, she went to the front door and pulled the lock free.

"Are you fucking kiddin me?!" Mac roared once he had gotten inside. "lockin' me outta my own fuckin' house?"

His arms were laden with plastic bags so he used his foot to slam the door shut behind him.

"stealing my shoes?" she countered, her arms crossed and her eyes narrowed.

That made him smirk, the anger leaving his face and instead being replaced with a weird sort of light in his eyes. He dropped the bags at his feet and grabbed her by the elbow, dragging her with him over to a front window and forcing her in front of it. He brought a thick, stubby finger up to point where he wanted her to look, and Eddie followed his instruction to see Duke chewing on what remained of her sneakers.

"darn" Mac said sarcastically, retreating away from her to go back to the groceries. "how'd that happen?"

Edith sighed, leaning her forehead against the grimey glass of the window and shutting her last time she had been in this house, he had physically drug her out the front door and thrown her out on her ass. It had been a throw too, a simple shove she could maybe forgive, but she had cleared all the steps and landed hard enough to knock the wind out of her. Then, while she lay there recovering, she had heard him slam the door and turn the lock. It had been a mean, unforgiving sound, and the memory of it lit a fire in her that she had no intention of smothering.

"fuck you asshole!" she screamed suddenly, turning and racing towards him, her hands curled into fists that she used to beat at his back. "i fucking hate you!"

"well i hate you too!" he yelled back, hunching slightly and using his shoulders to protect his face. Her punches didn't hurt, he was just annoyed that she would even try. "git the fuck offa me!"

He spun, his arm cracking like a whip and smacking her across the face. She went down hard after that, fresh blood seeping from her nose and her body landing in an awkward pile. Mac rolled his eyes, nudging her with the toe of his boot to try and rouse her, but she was out cold.

"goddammit" he grumbled to himself.

He sighed, crouching down to gather her up and then carrying her into his bedroom. He flopped her down in the bed, not bothering to clean her up or stop the bleeding, and then returned to the foyer to get the groceries. He wanted it to be like before, when she would just hang out with him and do whatever he said. This was a version of her he wasn't used to, and while he didn't totally hate it, kind of enjoying having someone to rough house with, he was getting a little tired of having to fight her tooth and nail over every single fucking thing.

He knew she was mad, that was obvious enough, but he wondered how long she would keep it up. The shift had already occured in him. He wanted her again, for whatever fucking reason, and her butthurt feelings weren't about to discourage him. In a huff, he put the groceries away and made himself some lunch. Then, when the girl still hadn't woken up, he went back to the bedroom and stood over her.

Mac had his head cocked like a dog who was curious about something, watching her breathe in and out. He reached down and lifted her wrist, holding it between his thumb and forefinger and then dropping it to see if it would rouse her. When it didn't, he let a wicked grin spread over his face. He had an idea.

xXxXxXxXx

Edith groaned in her sleep. She was having the most intense dream, one where a warm wave was lapping between her legs, and she shifted her body to try and bear down on it. The wave moved into her, flicking against her as if it were made of muscle instead of water, and the groan turned into a moan. It was then that her eyes shot open. She tried to sit up but discovered she was unable to. The fucker had tied her to the bed, and the 'wave' she had felt and tried to scoot closer to, was his tongue.

Mac chuckled from between her legs and didn't let up when she began to kick. If anything, it only served to egg him on. He ignored the way she yelled at him, concentrating on what he was doing and slowly pushing two thick fingers inside her. Eventually she stopped fighting and started grinding against his face. Now it was his turn to moan; he fucking loved when she did that. Most girls he was with were either too eager, something that pissed him right the fuck off, or too self-conscious to be any real fun. Eddie was a good median. She acted like she didn't want it but secretly she was a freak. All he had to do was coax it out of her. It was like charging a car battery; once he had her going, he was confident she could sustain the lust herself.

"you like that you little bitch?" he asked her, crawling up her body and holding himself there above her. The veins in his arms were like cords as he supported his weight. There wasn't an ounce of him that was unaccounted for - it was all lashed together into one complete muscle.

"i've had better" she said breathlessly, raising one eyebrow in an attempt to tease him. "you're definitely in the top five though"

He scowled at her, knowing what she was doing, and decided to oblige her.

"oh yeah?" he asked, fisting his dick into his hand and rubbing the tip of it up and down her soaked pussy lips. "you sure 'bout that sweetheart"

She nodded but had her eyes closed now, trying to gyrate her hips against him, trying to draw him farther into her.

"you wan' me to stop?"

Edith shook her head furiously, her hips moving quicker now, desperate for the contact. He sat back on his heels, dick still in his hand, and listened to her groan in frustration.

"goddammit Mac"

"you aint been a good girl at all Eddie" he whispered as he leaned back over her. "what makes you think you deserve this?"

She was panting now. He had brought her right up to the edge with his mouth, and now he was going to make her beg for it. To her credit, she screwed her lips shut in refusal and wrapped her hands around the rope holding each wrist, pulling and trying to free herself. She didn't want to give him the satisfaction of hearing the desperation in her voice.

"aint gunna work" he told her, reaching down to press his thumb against her clit to get her attention again. "only one way this is gunna go darlin'"

She practically screamed in frustration, shaking her entire body and rattling the very frame of the bed. Mac snickered at her attempts, using his hand to jerk himself off right outside of her pussy, letting his knuckles knock against swollen, sensitive clit.

"just ask nice an ill let you have it" he growled at her. "don't you wan-"

"fine!" she yelled at him, cutting him off. She needed him to stop talking and just finish it. "i want you to fuck me! now just shut up and do it!"

He slammed into her then, sending the breath rushing out of her and beginning a relentless pace so she couldn't get it back. Her Body jolted beneath him, and she had to brace herself against the headboard to keep her head from bashing into it.

"now that wasn't nice" he told her roughly, moving his hands down to grip her hip bones as hard as he could. He drug her lower half up off the bed and into his lap. "why ya gada be such a fucking bitch"

She didn't answer, probably wouldn't be able to even if she tried, but he wasn't interested in making her talk anymore. Now he wanted to punish her. She was gasping, trying to dig her heels into the bed to push away from him, but he used his hold on her to practically bend her in half. Eddie grunted in discomfort and tried to twist away from him but it was useless, she was trapped.

"there ya go ya fuckin' cunt" Mac breathed out, hitting his hips against hers as hard as he could. "that's what ya wanted right?"

The girl was whimpering beneath him, obviously unable to find any pleasure in his treatment, but that was what she got for being so fucking difficult. Eventually though, mostly because he wanted to feel the way her pussy clenched around him when she came, Mac eased up and unfolded her, pressing the rough pad of thumb against her clit. The switch wasn't instant but it didn't take long, and soon Eddie was matching his thrusts with the snap of her hips.

He groaned and buried his face in her neck, sucking as much skin as he could into his open mouth and gently biting down on it. Her body contracted at the sensation of him holding her there in his teeth, and he felt her belly start to tremble.

"like that huh?" he asked as he released her from his jaws, his voice husky and thick with lust. "you guna be a good girl if i let you cum?"

She nodded frantically, and then slammed her head back against the bed, her movements becoming jerky and irregular. He used one hand to ruck her shirt up over her tits, and since she didn't have a bra on, it was easy to latch onto her nipple and start sucking and lapping at it. She came undone at that, spasming hard when he applied the slightest pressure with his teeth and then used his tongue to flick back and forth.

The force of her orgasm had her muscles squeezing him like a vice, and it didn't take long for him to follow her into oblivion. When Mac came to, the girl was still beneath him, her body jostling from side to side as she tried to free herself from his weight.

"goddamn!" he said triumphantly, rising up off of her and sitting on the edge of the bed. He retrieved his pack of smokes from his discarded jeans on the floor and lit on before glancing casually back to her. "suppose ya want me ta cut ya loose"

"if it's not too much trouble" she responded, arching her back in an attempt to stretch.

He scoffed at her boldness, a dry bark of a laugh, as he eyed her carefully over his shoulder. Maybe that punch to the head Mikey had given her had knocked something loose; she had never had the gall to talk back to him before.

"only cause i want my dinner" he said dropping the cig in the ashtray by his bed and moving to untie the knots. Her struggles had made them tighter of course, but it wasn't like Mac wasn't ready for that, he was used to this next step. When he pulled his knife up to cut her free though, something happened that caught his eye.

Not much interested him except for things he could get off on. The meant drugs, pussy and booze. He didn't care about people if he couldn't use them to his advantage, and he certainly didn't care about anyone's preferences or personality. If he couldn't fuck it or use it in someway to procure drugs, then he didn't even notice it, it was fucking boring. So when the female he had tied down on the bed in front of him visibly shivered at the sound of his knife flicking open, no one was more shocked than him at what came next.

He stopped.

He was holding the knife in front of him, watching her as she lay still. She had her eyes shut as she waited, her face towards the ceiling. Nothing had changed and yet something was different, something he couldn't quite name but recognized somehow just the same. Experimenting, he closed the knife and then snapped his wrist the way he had done a thousand times before, the ritual so constant he hardly even noticed it anymore. The knife felt like an extension of his hand when he held it, and the blade coming out was just him drawing his claws.

Except Eddie reacted. She didn't open her eyes or start to freak out though. No, this was new, this was something he hadn't seen before. He repeated the process, flicking the knife open and watching the girl fucking shiver in pleasure at the sound of it. He waited until she opened her eyes and turned to face him before starting to chuckle.

"what? do you like that?" he asked, half amazed and half mocking; all dickhead who couldn't wait to rub it in her face. "that turn you on sweetheart?"

"no" she said too quickly, obviously lying. "just do it already, c'mon"

But it was too late of course. He had seen the way her body responded to the noise, and he couldn't wait to have some fun with it.

xXxXxXx

Thank you Aly for the comment on the first chapter! I posted this for you otherwise I think I'd be too discouraged . If you leave love it really helps! Otherwise my anxiety just tells me it's awful. Cheers


	3. Chapter 3

**kristy this is for you! youve always been my biggest support and im sorry i forgot to mention you in myshout outs after chapter 2. its just cause we talk all the time now :-p i know you know i luh ya.**

 **this is only half of chapter 3 :)**

"Mac, c'mon" Edith tried for the hundredth time that night. "You had your fun and you got your dinner. I wanna go home"

"yeah an people in hell want slurpees" he grunted back at her. "if you say it again imma gag ya with the dirtiest rag i can find"

She threw the towel she'd been wiping the counter down with into the sink. The kitchen was as clean as she was going to get it, and she had cooked not only dinner for him but also dessert. She had been sure he would give up this charade after all that, but for some reason he wasn't relenting. She desperately wanted to repeat herself, it was the only thing she could think to say, but she didn't want to call his bluff on gagging her. The house was littered with mechanic rags that were covered in oil and grease, and if he dug through the pile of laundry she'd gathered and found some of the ones she had used to scrub the filth of the counters, she wasn't sure she could live through it. Instead, she tried a slightly different approach.

"I need clean clothes though Mac, i can't just -"

"back of the pick-up" he told her without looking up, too busy concentrating on shoveling another large forkful of mashed potatoes into his face.

He ate like he was in some kind of prison, with his shoulders up protectively around his plate and his arm rapidly working to feed himself. Edith watched him, temporarily fascinated and impressed by his pace, until her heart unexpectedly sank. He ate like someone was going to take it away from him. She had been so distracted by it that for a moment, she didn't register what he had just said.

"wait, what?"

"yer clothes" He flicked his chin out in the direction of his pick-up; it was all the attention he could spare.

"what about them?"

"There'n back of the pickup" he said around a mouthful of food, clearly getting annoyed now. "fucking christ already"

Edith walked backwards a few steps, her eyes never leaving Mac's hulking form at the table while he grumbled to himself about what a pain she was being. Eventually he forgot her entirely though, using his fork to tear a huge chunk of meatloaf free and quickly devour it.

"goddamn that's good" he said absentmindedly as he scooped more mashed potatoes and dredged them through the sauce. "mmph"

Eddie checked to make sure Mac had rekenneled Duke before she made the journey outside, having no interest in suffering the fate that her shoes had. The sand was rapidly cooling now that the sun was going down, and she shivered slightly as she made her way over to his truck. It looked spooky parked there in the dusk, almost like it could jump out at her at any second. Duke barked at her and threw his body against the chain link fence, so she went as quickly as possibly to the bed of the truck to find out what he meant.

It was full of junk of course, but she saw two garbage bags that didn't seem to have quite the same level as dust on them as the surrounding debris, so she grabbed them and opened them quick at her feet.

They were full of her clothes. Clothes that had been in her dresser yesterday. The realization of what it meant was a strange mix of disgust and elicit joy. He had been in her apartment, he had gone to get her things for her. It wasn't really an apartment, sure...It was just a shitty motel room, and yeah his father owned it, but still, it was her space and he had gone there. Her chest felt weird. She was pissed at the invasion of privacy but she was also intrigued. Mac never did anything he didn't want to, so he must have had a good reason for it.

Except Edith could not compute this. The damage he had done recently was too fresh in her mind, and she couldn't let her guard down. Her instincts took over instead, rerouting her brain to remember the way it had felt when he physically pushed her away from him, when he had grabbed her face and told her she didn't matter. The tactic worked, enraging her instantly and sending her on the offensive. She stormed back to the house with the bags and hurled them at him, knocking his beer clean off the table and sending his mostly clean plate into his lap.

"the fuck girl!" he exclaimed, rising instantly to his feet and backing away from the mess. She had surprised him, yes, but he was good at recovery. He charged her, catching her neck and face in both hands and walking her quickly backwards to slam her up against the wall.

She gasped when she collided with it, and her hands came up reflexively to try and tear his off. It didn't phase him though, he simply dug in, squaring his hips and moving his feet shoulder width apart. He dropped his elbows to a more comfortable height and relaxed his hands just enough so that she wouldn't pass out. Then he leveled his face with hers, leaning down to account for their differences in height.

He waited for the anger to drain out of her eyes. He had expected panic, that frantic side to side dart of her pupils, but the girl held steady. The only thing he saw was hatred and maybe a little bit of pain around the edges. Her neck must have been sore as fuck already, and even with all the opiates coursing through her, he knew it had to hurt. The longer she held his gaze and didn't back down though, the more his rage subsided. Mac's temper was like a solar flare; it burned hot but it burned quick. Now that the girl had survived the initial, knee-jerk reaction of his anger, he could control himself and draw it out. His vision had cleared.

He exhaled through his nose and regripped her neck, letting her feel him there, demonstrating just how much power he'd gained. She tried to retaliate, but the way she dug her nails into his skin didn't hurt after decades of beating his hands to a pulp inside engines. Mac had also known to press his body against hers in a way that left no room for her to draw her knees up or kick him; he was well versed in this posture. They were attached at the hip and he had one leg between hers, pinning her where he wanted her.

"got you now sweetheart" he whispered at her, his eyes never breaking contact with hers as she struggled. "yer all mine"

Edith tried everything she could think of to get free. She threw her body as hard as she could from side to side and tried to stomp on his feet. She bucked and she yelled, but she couldn't push him off. It was like he was made of brick, he felt so dense and thoroughly constructed. Finally, she held still, effectively going limp in his arms. He waited a moment more, just to be sure she was truly done, before he dipped his mouth down to ghost over her lips.

"i wanna kiss you," he whispered, starting to smile and chuckle despite how serious he was pretending to be. "but yer face is all fucked up"

He let her shove him off then, rocking back and bringing his hand up to cover his mouth again. He held it right up in front, his thumb bent and about to touch tip of his nose, effectively hiding everything behind it. His eyes crinkled up in a way he'd never be able to disguise though, he looked fucking delighted.

"you're an asshole" she spat at him. "and the reason my fucking face looks like this"

"im sorry" he giggled. "all i heard was fuck my face, what did you say?"

Eddie screamed them, attacking him with renewed hatred. He was ready for it this time though, and when she ran at him he simply ducked and caught her around the waist, lifting her up onto his shoulder and smacking her on the ass.

"at least yer ass is still fat" he told her, running his palm over it and squeezing hard. "that part-a-ya still looks great"

Now she was really mad, trying to hurt him by pounding her fists onto his back and shoulders, doing anything to get him to put her down. It was a wasted effort though because his daddy had beaten the skin off of him a long time ago. His back was all scar tissue now, and her punches were deadened by the layers and years of physical abuse.

Behind him, her phone chimed on the counter. He turned, distracted by the noise, and she took the opportunity to find his chin blindly, yanking as hard as she could at the scruff she found there and making him curse. He practically threw her then, propelling back way from her and holding his face in his hands.

"Bitch!" he roared at her. "fuck is yer problem?"

"you are goddammit!" she screamed back at him, "now fucking let me -"

He held up his finger, his eyes practically dancing with light, as he waited for her to make the mistake. Except she caught herself, clamping her mouth shut before she could get the words out. She knew if she insisted on being allowed to go home he would follow through on his promise to gag her, so she summoned every ounce of self control she had in her body and kept her lips shut tight.

The phone chimed again.

"who the fuck is texting you?" Mac asked, preparing to push past her to reach the chirping device.

"its only the timer i set" she replied in annoyance, batting his hand away and unlocking it with a swipe of her thumb. "the brownies are done"

"put weed in 'em?"

"maybe"

"tryin' ta knock me out so you can make yer escape?"

"maybe"

He smirked at her, watching her pull the pan from the hot oven and calculating what he would do if she suddenly spun and hit him with it. He was relieved when she simply set them on the top of the stove to cool instead of using them as a weapon. They smelled really fucking good, and he hadn't ever had one this fresh; No one had ever baked him anything before.

Before she turned to face him though he hardened his features, not wanting to let on how excited he was. It wasn't just the cooking that had him on the edge of his seat though, it was also the endless scenarios of knife play running through his head. He knew he wanted to push her, to see just how far she would go, but the last thing he wanted to do was rush it. Of all the women in this godforsaken town, she was the only one who had ever held his interest for more than a few days. Now that he knew about her kink though, he was almost captivated by her.


	4. Chapter 4

"they have to cool" she told him as he pushed her aside to get to the pan. "or, actually, go ahead and burn yourself"

He made a face as though she'd hurt his feelings, putting both hands over his heart and twisting in mock pain. Truth was he had a great idea what they could do while they waited, and she must have seen it written all over his face because she avoided him when he reached for her, ducking past him and racing towards the bathroom.

It made him laugh, her thinking a plywood door was any kind of protection from him, but he let her lock it before he followed after her. Then he stood right outside of it and jiggled the door handle as hard as he could, just to fuck with her, before banging on it with a closed fist. If he put his shoulder into it he knew he could knock the lock free, but he wasn't too thrilled about the idea of replacing the door jamb. He also wasn't really in any hurry to get her out. She could stay in there all night for as much as he cared, as long as she didn't leave the house.

"Edddddie" he said in a sing song voice

"fuck off Mac!" she hollered back

He snickered and walked away. The full meal he had just eaten had made him feel great, and he was having way too much fun to actually get mad at her little display of defiance. Usually it was all fast food and empty calories, so the fact that the girl had cut real vegetables and disguised them in a way that he would eat was making his body hum in gratitude. Mac found a fork in the drawer, and then grabbed the tray of brownies with the hem of his shirt. She hadn't been lying, they were still hot as fuck, but his hands only had about 25% of feeling left in them. Snickering as he stepped over the mess she had made, her clothes littering the floor of his kitchen, he went into the living room and flopped onto the couch.

"im watching the next episode of mindhunter without you if you dont come out!" he called over his shoulder in the direction of the hall. "going once, going twice -"

He heard the door creak open and he smiled to himself, not bothering to hide it because there was no one around to see it. She slunk up to the couch, eyeing him suspiciously.

"is it safe to sit down?" she asked.

"not in the slightest" he grinned up at her, forgetting to mask his happiness. "these brownies are awesome by the way. If ya wanted me ta turn ya loose ya shouldn't have made such good food. now yer guna hafta stay forever"

She rolled her eyes but his mood was too contagious; soon she was smiling right along with him despite the pain it caused her. Mac couldn't remember the last time he had been this well fed. He had already internally decided that the girl would have to stay. He didn't care if she didn't want to fuck him either. Mostly because he could make her, but also because, for the moment at least, he was somehow more interested in her domestic abilities. He could fuck anyone he wanted, pretty much anytime he wanted, but this willingness to cook for him was knew.

That didn't mean he didn't pounce on her as soon as she sat down though.

"Mac!" she exclaimed, trying to shove his hands off of her and get back to her feet. "let go"

"aww c'mon" he practically purred, pretending that he would be coaxing even while he dug his hand, uninvited, into the pajamas she was wearing. "be sweet to me"

"eat yer damn brownies and leave me be!" she insisted, laughing even while she tried to maintain her scowl.

"i'd rather eat you"

He was up on his hands now, having crawled over her and trapped her with his weight. What he really wanted was to shove his dick down her throat, regardless if she could breathe or not, but he knew if he did that she would bite him. Instead he settled for forcing his hand between her legs, groaning into her neck when he discovered how wet she was there.

"get off Mac!"

"yeah, im fuckin' trying"

Edith put her hand on Mac's chest and tried half-heartedly to push him off. He already had his face buried in her neck, licking and sucking it in a way that was impossible to resist. While she was distracted, turning her head to give him greater access to the area he was devouring with his tongue, Mac grabbed her wrist. Once he had control of that, it was easy to force her arm and make her grope his dick, and even when she tried to pull back, Mac kept control of her.

"c'mon, just touch it"

She felt like she was back in highschool and just discovering sex, almost like Mac was the upperclassmen who was trying to convince her to open her legs up beneath the bleachers. 'fuck it' she thought to herself, finally turning her face to catch his determined lips with hers. 'one more time won't kill me'.

As soon as she complied he got rougher though, abandoning the attention he was giving her clit and instead forcing his fingers inside her. She gasped and he hunched his back, getting up on his knees and hastily undoing his belt, all the while keeping his mouth attached to hers. Even if she had wanted to stop him now Edith wouldn't have been able to. He turned into a different animal when he was fucking, one with very, very selective hearing. She knew she could be anyone to him now; this was a compulsory act, this wasn't about her.

"beg me for it" he rasped, his mouth wet and trailing down her collarbone. "tell me how much you need it."

When she stayed silent, Mac bit down hard on the bone there, making Eddie scream and her body convulse. His body shuddered at the sound of it, a tremor that started with a tick of his neck and raced all the way down each side of his back.

"close enough"

He pressed himself into her, ignoring the way she beat at his back and sinking all the way in. a noise of frustration came from her chest but it was a tiny, far off sound, and Mac was already lost to her protests. Instead he held himself there for a moment, feeling how her body tried to compensate for him, moving his hips slowly to go as deep as he possibly could. When she finally yelped, her hands grabbing onto his shoulders for purchase, he drew back and began the relentless pace that he was famous for.

The muscles of his stomach were like rock as he slammed his hips as hard as he could into her, holding her down by her wrists and attacking her neck again. She whimpered at the bruising force of him, and he finished quick afterwards, egged on by the sound. He knew she secretly loved it, the abuse he inflicted on her, and he didn't care why. They had both had shitty lives, and she was like him in the fact that it took that much for her to even feel anything at all. She still acted like she hated it though, something he guessed she did so she could save face, and Mac wasn't surprised when she kicked him off of her the first chance she got. He had come inside her, something he knew she hated. Oh well.

"goddamnit Mac!" She yelled.

Edith didn't cry or wail though, there wasn't any pity for herself, she was just pissed off.

"yer like a goddamn dog who won't quit humping my fucking leg" she spat, punching his chest as hard as she could and getting off the couch. "what is wrong with you"

She didn't stick around for an answer, knowing there was no logical explanation for him, at least not one that she was willing to hear . Instead she left him there, lighting his post-sex cigarette, and retreated to the bathroom to get cleaned up.

xXxXxXx

Edith took a shower, waiting for the rest of him to drain out of her. She hated him. He was the only one in the town who mattered to her, but she still couldn't stand him. There was no halfway with Mac, she knew that, but would it kill him to just be nice for once? The closest he ever got to it was either teasing her or forcing her to orgasm, and neither of those could be very fulfilling for long. That was why she had to get out of here; that was why she had dosed the brownies with a lion's share of medicated butter.

She found him comatose on the couch. He had eaten nearly half the tray brownies, and in doing so had consumed enough THC to fell an elephant. She poked him and he hardly moved, as if rigor mortis were already setting in. There was no mistaking that he still had a pulse with the sound of his snoring though, so Eddie knew he'd eventually snap out of it. Shame.

"take that you fucking prick" she boasted. "i'll see you in hell"

She went into the kitchen and picked up the few pieces of clothing she actually cared about, layering them over her body and deciding to abandon the majority of them. It was a long walk and she wasn't about to carry two garbage bags full of clothes all the way back to the motel. Once she had draped herself in as much as she could she went towards the front door, checking her pockets out of habit to make sure she had her phone.

Which of course she didn't.

She went back to the kitchen, knowing she had left it on the counter but not at all surprised when she couldn't find it. She dropped her shoulders and pointed her face towards the ceiling, completely exasperated by the situation.

"fuck it" she said finally, hearing Mac's snores all the way from the couch. He had obviously hidden it, but it was her fault for giving him the chance.

After that she went to the front door, pausing for a full minute at the threshold while she contemplated her options. It was full dark now, and even while the light from the stars and rising moon would ensure she'd be able to keep to the road, it was still scary to think about what might be out there. For one brief second she thought about maybe waiting for daylight, but after remembering how the morning had gone, she decided to take her chance against the evils of the night. She was confident that if any harm did stumble upon her, it couldn't be worse than what this guy had planned. She took off into the darkness.

xXxXxXxXx

When Mac did wake up, late the next afternoon, he immediately fell back asleep. Thirty minutes later he was finally able to fight his way up through the fog, rolling off the couch with a loud thud and then clumsily getting to his feet. Driven by his most basic needs, he staggered into the kitchen.

He ate the meatloaf right out of the pan. No one had put it in the fridge so it was a room temperature, congealed mass but he didn't care. He ate it with his hands, then went to work on the mashed potatoes crusted in the adjacent pot. Finally, only after his intense munchies were satiated, he wiped his hands on his jeans and pulled his cell phone free. He made a call to one of his guys, telling him to tell the others, and then went out back to piss for what felt like eternity and smoke a cigarette. Then, after heading back inside to shovel another handful of rock hard brownie into his mouth, he promptly fell back asleep on the couch for the rest of the day.


	5. Chapter 5

**hey! My comp and keyboard are driving me insane and i hope i got all the typos but it keeps coming unpaired / randomly deleting whole lines of text and I can't use my new one (my Christmas gift!) Until I have reliable WiFi to set it up. Sigh. Anyway, this is for all of you lovely, awesome, anonymous reviewers who made me sit down and work out all the kinks in this chapter. I'm sorry it's not longer but I'm about to break this keyboard over my leg :) cheers.**

Edith walked for hours, glad that she had thought to layer herself in different pieces of clothing. The air was cold after hours without the sun, and the sand was sucking whatever warmth it could from her bare feet as she stormed home. The girl used her anger to propel herself forward, squashing whatever doubts that tried to rise in her, killing them quick before they had time to grow.

She had to leave. This town obviously wasn't big enough for the both of them, and Eddie knew it was the only move she could make. There was obviously no reasoning with him, and it wasn't like there was anything here for her anyway. She'd been kidding herself this whole time. Come sunrise she was headed towards the bus station.

The whole walk she was on high-alert. She jumped at any noise she heard, and she physically froze at the sound of what could have been an engine off in the distance, straining her ears and trying to decide if it was coming closer. He may have eaten enough weed to knock himself out, but Eddie knew he had meth in the house somewhere too.

There was an undeniable feeling of victory when she made it to the motel. After she had let herself in though, the sight of what he had done to the place made her heart sink. He had ripped the room apart. She checked for the envelope in the front drawer of her desk even though she knew it would be gone. Inside of it had been all the money she had managed to save from her shifts at the diner, and she hadn't hidden it well. Somehow, in the span of a few days, Mac had taken absolutely everything she needed to escape except her feet.

Eddie eyed the disheveled bed warily. She was exhausted. She didn't know what time it was without her phone, but based on the condition of the sky she guessed dawn couldn't be more than an hour off. The idea of sleep nagged at her. On the one hand, it would be wise to recharge and approach the situation clear headed, but the danger felt like a stab to her side. When he woke up this would be the first place he looked for her.

There wasn't anything to pack, and she didn't have anything to distract her with to stay awake. She sat on the bed even though she knew it was a bad idea. She had to wait for the bus station to open, but maybe she should go sit in the chair. It was less comfortable. She would probably be able to stay awake and wait for the sunrise if she went and sat at the desk by the window.

If only.

xXxXxXx

Eddie woke up to the sound of banging. In an instant she was fully awake, her heart zooming like an engine that's been revved too quickly. The banging intensified.

"Alright!" she snapped. It was out of her mouth before she could stop it, a completely involuntary response. She clamped her hand over her face and held her breath, waiting to see what the person on the other side of the door did next.

"Ed?"

"Jameson?"

The girl opened the door, in too much shock to be cautious. The man she found standing there looked just as surprised as she was, his mouth open but absent of words. They took in the sight of one another for a moment and then said, almost in unison - "what are you doing here?"

Edith answered first.

"I, I live here?"

Jameson rolled his eyes at that, folding his arms over his chest and settling his weight on one foot. He looked at her like she was an idiot, and she started to get mad. Even though he was much taller than her, Eddie felt above him. She had been in this shit hole town long before he had, and that had to count for something. Her very survival was her street cred.

"What?" she asked him, irritated now.

"I just didn't expect to find you here is all" he sighed, taking a step towards her. "i only volunteered to check here because i thought for sure you wouldn't be dumb enough to stick around."

When she realized he was advancing on her, she went to slam the door on him. His body was already moving to keep it open though, so all she did was bash it into his forearm. He groaned and shut his eyes against the pain.

"yup, lucky me" he grumbled to himself, forcing the door wide enough for him to fit through and then kicking it closed. "why can't you just do what yer told Eddie?"

"oh, like you?" she sneered, ducking him when he reached for her, moving sideways away from him. "don't fucking touch me"

The man held up his hands. Blocking the door but not getting any closer. He had short light hair and a sharp jawline. She had always thought he was cute in the past, but now she wished she had never met him.

"So what?" she asked, trying to calm her breathing, trying to slow her heart down. "what happens now, you're supposed to bring me back?"

"i fucking wish" he grumbled.

xXxXxXx

They stopped at the local drive-thru place on the way and Jameson ordered for her when she refused to answer him. She may have no choice but to go with him, as demonstrated when he pulled a small handgun on her, but that didn't mean she had to make it easy. She doubted he would actually shoot her, but he swore up and down that Mac had given him permission.

"no he didn't" she scoffed, stealing one of his cigarettes.

"yeah, he did" Jameson reiterated as they pulled away from the intercom. "said you were a fucking pain in the ass, which you are, and that i could shoot you in the foot if i needed to"

She made a face, indicating she still didn't believe him, and sat back in her seat. When they got to the window though, she recognized the girl working, and she practically leaned into Jamesons lap to get her attention.

"Candy" she hollered, trying to be heard from the passenger seat over Jameson's truck. "call the cops and tell them i've been kidnapped."

"here we go" Jameson muttered under his breath, obviously unsurprised by her antics. He angled his shoulder to try and block her.

"What'd you say Eddie?" Candy asked, moving her headset off her ears to better hear her. "call the cops?"

"don't call the cops Candy, she's just being dramatic" Jameson offered, reaching blindly behind him to try and cover Eddie's mouth.

"call 'em" Edith insisted, dodging Jamesons hands and locking her elbow against him to keep him back. "and if i turn up dead tell them i thought i was Mac"

Behind Candy, another worker nudged a paper bag into her hands. Candy gave it to Jameson but had her eyes on Eddie the whole time, her eyebrows pointed down in confusion. He paid and drove away, cursing his awful luck for having gotten stuck with the girl beside him.

"nice stunt" he growled at her, reaching into one of the greasy paper bags to pull a few fries free.

All jokes aside however, Eddie was getting kind of worried. She understood why Mac had come for her at the cave, his mentality like that of a dog not wanting to share a bone he'd laid claim to. This much effort was out of character for him though, and it made her nervous.

Beside her, Jameson was just as irritated. He was meant to make sure she didn't leave town before Mac could get his hands on her, but given how his boss had sounded during their last conversation, Jameson knew he was stuck with her for the better part of the day, maybe even all night. The thought of having to babysit this chick was enfuriating, and he hoped she would just sit on the couch and not try anything stupid.

They pulled up to his house and Eddie sighed.

"if i get lice because of this -"

"oh, fuck you"

He slammed his car door shut behind him and stormed up to the house, carrying the food with him. Eddie got out and looked around the barren wasteland that was Jamesons property. It was high noon now, and she knew if she ran and somehow managed to give this bozo the slip, she would likely die of dehydration out in the desert.

"Eddie c'mon!"

She groaned and trudged towards him, walking past him and into his house. It really wasn't even that bad inside, and Eddie was surprised to find that he had A/C. She flopped onto the couch and he sat in the chair closer to the door, eyeing her warily as he set the food down on the table between them.

"I'm not going to run. Stop looking at me like that" Eddie grumbled, accepting the food when he passed it to her and unwrapping the fried chicken sandwich. "it's too damn hot out"

Jameson remained skeptical. Eventually though, after a few beers and a couple bongs, he started to relax.

"So what the fuck changed?" he asked, passing her the bong he had just repacked and then handing her the lighter. "are you pregnant or something?"

Eddie choked on the hit she had just taken, coughing harshly and scalding her throat with hot smoke. Even though she was struggling to breathe, she still found the coordination to shake her head. That was something she had to refute immediately. If Mac thought she was carrying his spawn he was either going to toss her down the stairs or tie her to the bed and never let her out of his sight.

"no way" she said, still hacking as she passed the bong back to him. "fuck"

He looked at her sheepishly.

"its just weird that one minute he's telling you to get lost and the next i'm getting a phone call to go find you"

Edith shrugged her shoulders, still recovering from the scorch she had inflicted when she didn't expel the smoke from her lungs properly. Jameson, perhaps feeling guilty for having caused it, got to his feet and got her a beer.

"here" he said handing it to her. "since yer not pregnant, may as well get drunk with me"

xXxXxXx

By the time Mac got there, late that night, Edith was already falling asleep on the couch. He pulled up well after dark, but the sound of his truck was unmistakable as it crunched over the gravel. Eddie pushed herself up into a sitting position, wanting to face the man head on, but the sound of his horn let her know that he just expected her to come out. She didn't bother looking at Jameson for help. Instead she got to her feet and, having no belongings to gather, went towards the truck idling outside.

He hadn't killed his headlights or even switched them to accessory, so he blinded her as she stepped out into the night. She covered her face and tried to skirt the harsh beams, but the only relief was once she had walked past them and reached the passenger side door. She climbed in, her whole body tensing as she did, and pulled the creaky door shut behind her.

"clever" Mac said from beside her, his voice still thick with sleep. "real fucking clever Ed"

She rolled her eyes in the dark as he put the truck in reverse, wondering what was next. To her surprise though, he didn't drive her back to his house. Instead, he drove to the bar. For a second she couldn't believe it; all that and he was just going to drop her back off? Enraged, she reached for the handle, ready to jump out and race to her room. The plastic hung limp in her hand when she grasped it though, still broken from the day before.

"fuck you think yer going?" he spat, reaching over to grab her and haul her out the drivers side after him. "s'only a pit stop now c'mon"

He drug her with him up into the bar, yanking her to stand in front of him once they were under the lights. She brought her arm up to shield her face but quickly realized she didn't need to. It was late and the lights were dim. The only people in the bar were the regulars.

"See" Mac sneered from behind her, shaking her slightly as if for emphasis. "shes fuckin' fine, just like i said"

Edith opened her eyes, glancing around and wondering who he was talking to. From behind the bar, Walter chuckled and kept polishing the glass in his hands.

"terrific" he practically purred. "now you can go clean up the mess you made in her room"

Mac started to protest, but Walters face changed in an instant, hardening and yelling at his son in spanish. After that Mac didn't even try to argue, just grumbled to himself under his breath and shoved the girl forward. She stumbled slightly on her feet, drawing Walters attention to her lack of shoes, and the old man sighed. He motioned for her to sit at the bar and then set a glass of water in front of her.

"he do tha?" he asked, his words flowing easily like song lyrics. He brought his fingers up to dance near his temple, gesturing towards her injury.

Edith shook her head, smiling despite the pain it caused her. Mac was in trouble, and it thrilled her. For however long it took him to straighten her motel room up, she was safe under Walters protective glare. Mac wouldn't dare try anything in front of his father.

"no, that was Mikey"

"Mikey?"

Surely the old man had heard all this already. There wasn't much in this town that escaped him, especially not when it came to Mac and his friends; but if Walter was giving her the opportunity to tell her side of the story, then she was going to take it.

"Mikey got it in his head that i owed him something" Edith began, avoiding the more scandelous details. "and he didn't like it when i argued with him about it"

"ahh" Walter mused, stroking his impressive facial hair. "still doesn't explain my son though"

Eddie shrugged her shoulders, suddenly feeing insecure, but soon realized what the easy-talking man was getting at. He thought she was pregnant, just like Jameson had, and he was waiting for her to give something away. It made her mad, the thought of all these people getting together to discuss her, and because she was pissed, she did something stupid.

"i don't know" she said abdsentmindely, making sure to touch her stomach as if it were an involuntary act. "im not sure"

She could practically feel the shift between them. It was as if Walter raising his eyebrows was a butterfly beating its wings and causing a tsunami halfway across the world. The whole room was effected by it, and Eddie immediately realized her mistake. Of course they had all been watching her, and now they all had the same idea running through their heads. Before she had a chance to set the record straight though, Mac burst back into the bar.

"s'done" he sneered at his dad, stalking over to grab Eddie off her bar stool. "now lets go"

Mac kept hold of her all the way to the car, refusing to let go until she was secured in the passanger seat. She was too shell shocked to really put up much of a fight anyway though. She shouldn't have done that. Why had she done that?"

They didn't even make it half way back to Mac's house before he got a phone call. He answered it like normal, yelling into the receiver at whoever had dared disturb him, but after a moment he narrowed his eyes and dropped his voice.

"oh really" he said, turning to stare at her. "no i hadn't heard that"

Had her door had a working lever on it, she would have gladly jumped out to eat gravel at 50 miles an hour. As luck would have it though, she was trapped. Mac muttered something into the phone about handling it himself and then ended the call apruptly. Eddie could hear whoever had been on the other end yelling as Mac took it away from his ear and disconnected it.

"any particular reason the old man is calling ta scream at me fer knockin you up?"

"you're guess is as good as mine" she lied, staring out the window. "maybe it has to do with you suddenly giving a fuck"

"well?"

"well, what?"

"are you?"

Edith scoffed, putting her forehead in her hand and leaning on her elbow. She wasn't going to dignify that question with a response. If he wanted to be dodgey with his answers, then so could she.

"better not be" he grumbled to himself as he tore down the country road.

The girl stayed silent the rest of the car ride and that was fine with Mac. He doubted she was actually pregnant, but she had still created a fucking mess he was going to have to clean up with Walter. He had been trying to fix problems when he brought her to the bar, not make new ones. The only reason they had even stopped there was because his father had flipped out when he'd seen the state of her room, and had insisted Mac prove that he hadn't hurt her.

When they got back to his house he didn't bother waiting to see if the girl would come on her own accord. He drug her behind him up the front steps and then shoved her towards the kitchen.

"clean it up" he barked at her.

She stumbled for a moment on her feet but didn't fall. After she righted herself, she smirked at him and put her hand on her stomach.

"careful mac, wouldn't want to hurt the baby"

"knock it off with that shit!"

He took a thundering step towards her when she didn't make any moves to do what he'd told her and she quickly scampered away from him.

"pick up yer shit before i throw it away" he hollered after her. "and make me some fuckin' dinner"

xXxXxXx

Not having anywhere else to store them, Edith crammed all her clothes back into the garbage bags and left them by the door. He couldn't keep her here forever. She was counting on him to get sick of her like he had done before, and she wanted to be ready to leave at a moments notice.

"what're you making?" he asked her, refusing to let her out of his sight until he'd been fed.

Eddie was mumbling to herself as she slammed around the kitchen, clanging pots and pans loudly as she worked. At first she ignored him, pulling a stupid face and continuing her quiet rant, but even she knew that wouldn't work for long. Mac didn't like being ignored.

"i said what the fuck ar'ya making" he repeated, getting close enough to shove her back by her shoulders.

The delicate tether inside the girl snapped then, and when she recovered her balance she swung the pan she'd been holding at his temple. Lucky for Mac, he had been expecting the retaliation, having seen she was about to explode in the way she held her mouth. He ducked right before the cast iron hit its mark, having baited her on purpose. He was itching for a fight. He hit her hard in the stomach, making her instantly drop to her knees a cradle herself in both arms. He kicked the pan she had dropped away from her, then leaned back to smoke a cigarette while she recovered.

"well" she coughed, struggling to talk through the pain. "that certainly wont be good for the baby"

"ya don't fuckin' quit that an imma get ya pregnant just ta spite ya" he snapped.

"ew" Eddie grimaced, carefully getting to her feet. "im making spaghetti, chill out"

He left her alone after that and went to watch TV. He was glad to have her back, but the question everyone kept asking him was nagging on his mind. What did he care? Aggravated that he should have to explain himself to anyone, he tried to push the thought from his mind. What did it matter why he cared? All that mattered was that he got what he wanted. If that happened to be the enormous pain-in-the-ass currently occupying his kitchen, then nobody better challenge it, especially not her. Mac flipped idly through the channels while he waited, thinking about Walter and how he was going to convince him the Eddie wasn't pregnant. He wasn't paying for any kind of test beyond the cheap piece of plastic that you pissed on, that was going to have to be proof enough.

They were just about to eat when somebody knocked at the front door.

"goddammit" Mac growled, pointing to the seat Eddie had been about to plant herself into. "you, sit'own and don't fucking move"

Edith waited in her chair, wondering if Mac was going to get mad if she started eating without him. He probably had some kind of alpha male complex that insisted he be the first to do anything, so the girl flicked the prongs of her fork while she waited. She could hear Mac arguing with someone, his voice getting louder and louder as the conversation wore on. Finally, right when she was about to sneak a bite of her food, he called out to her.

"Eddie! C'mere"

She was grumbling to herself and shaking her head when she rounded the corner, hungry and irritated, wanting whoever was here to just fuck off already. Except when she saw who it was, the local deputy in his horrible beige uniform, she started to smile.

"Hello officer"

xXxXx

"Goddammit Greg, i already told you - she ain't pregnant she just said that"

"and i told you Mac, that i have a police report from Candy telling me that Edith here's got a fucked up face an sayin ya kidnapped her, and then i got you, manhandling her all over the bar and trashing her hotel room"

"yeah, i know but - wait, what was that about Candy?"

"an then i got Walter calling me -"

"repeat that part about Candy"

Both men had their hands on their hips now, arguing about the days events while Eddie stood back, holding her bowl of pasta and watching the drama unfold with wide eyes. She had gone back to get it once she realized it was about to be a show. Mac wasn't going to do anything to reprimand her while Greg was here either.

"does it look like shes afraid fer her life?" Mac asked, gesturing to the girl standing and eating just inside the hall. "shes fuckin' fine"

"Mac" Greg said, a graying cowboy with little time for bullshit. "you know i let a lot of shit slide with you an yer boys"

Mac nodded.

"but i cant have multiple people calling in about this, 'specially if people think shes carrying a little un' now"

"she aint" Mac grit out, staring hard at the girl and then directing his attention back to Greg.

The deputy sighed, abandoning his quest to reason with the man in front of him and instead turning his attention to Eddie.

"sure eats like she is"

"hey!" she protested, her complaint muffled by the food in her mouth.

Mac chuckled slightly at that, but quickly hardened his face again. This wasnt funny, this was annoying as hell. He had just gotten her back for fucks sake.

"Eddie" Greg said, smiling towards her. "if you wanna stay here thats none of my buisness, but im gonna offer you a ride home just the same"

Eddie beamed at the man with full cheeks, bending to set the bowl at her feet and then walking past Mac to get to the porch. He caught her arm as she went by, holding her in place, unwilling to let her cross the threshold.

"Mac" Greg warned him tiredly.

"this aint over" Mac hissed at the girl trapped in his grip. "better run while you still can"

"Mac!" Greg repeated, sharper this time. "let her go"

Mac smirked down at her and released her arm.

"s'about done with her anyway so go on an take her" he spat, getting ready to shut the door on the both of them. "get the fuck off my porch"

xXxXxXxXx


	6. Chapter 6

**This chapter is for Krissy and Aly! thank you for commenting on my story :) its a super great feeling to know someone likes it, i even strooogled through this nightmare of a keyboard again.**

 **Krissy, i wrote something in this just for you because i am patiently waiting for the Mac story you teased me with. please publish. please make a 1000 chapters.**

Eddie was standing in front of the coffee maker at work when Mac and his friends walked in. She was busy trying to get the powder of a hot chocolate packet to settle, flipping it back and forth between her fingers, when she accidently made eye contact with him. To make matters worse, she immediately panicked, and she awkwardly looked down to read the instructions when he smirked at her. She hadn't spoken to him since that night at his house when Greg came to her rescue, but in a town this small it was impossible to avoid him forever.

It wasn't that she hadn't tried to leave, it was just that she truly had nowhere to go and no means to get there. Mac had stolen her savings, something she had already reconciled herself to never seeing again. She told herself she had paid him that money as a kind of bail, a way to escape the prison he was determined to trap her in. That was the only way she could roll her shoulders and get back to work. She was starting back at the bottom, a place she was discouraging familiar with.

Terry, her boss, had agreed to let her live in one of the rentals out behind the building until she could work off the first months rent. She told him she had been mugged on her way to the bank and that she'd been forced to surrender her debit card and pin. Lucky for her, her face matched the story and he brought it. Either that, or he just felt sorry for the girl. Eddie guessed it was the former, but she wasn't in the position to complain.

All in all, the lodging was actually a lot nicer than the motel had been. It had the added bonus of not sharing the same parking lot as the bar Mac practically lived at, and Eddie was grateful not to have to see that red truck everyday. It was also much closer to work. Work was all Eddie planned on doing until she saved enough money for the bus fare and the deposit on an apartment out west. It was a typically vague small town dream, but it was all she had to hold onto to.

Weeks passed. Edith paid off her room an began to start saving for next months. Once she was ahead on the rent she could start saving. Her face healed and she started smiling again. So of course here he was, eager to fuck it all up.

Spastically, Eddie turned her back on the broad shouldered man and concentrated on the words printed on the tiny paper sleeve, cringing inwardly at how stupid she must look reading the directions to something so simple. She ripped it open and dumped it into a mug, keeping her eyes glued to small blue letters as she pressed the hot water dispenser.

" _enjoy_!" the italic text mocked her from the chocolate dust speckled packet. " _you_ _**deserve**_ _it"_

"oh for fucks sake" she muttered to herself.

Because she wasn't up next in rotation, Eddie didn't have to wait on his group, and she shut her eyes for a moment in appreciation. The very last thing she wanted to do was serve him. She couldn't imagine having to walk up to him and ask what he wanted to eat. Mostly because she knew how much he would milk it. He would be so fucking delighted to get to order her around again.

She didn't have many tables left, and since she had opened the diner she had been the first cut today. Maybe if she could get her last few customers to cash out she could even leave before he did. She wanted to go to her apartment and lock the door against him.

That was the other bonus of not living at the motel any longer; Walter didn't own this place or let his son run amok here. Her mind was so set on the idea of dipping out, that she set about her side work early, and she went down into the basement to get the paper products she needed to restock. She brought a tray to help her carry everything she needed. She only wanted to make one trip down into this creepy cellar.

Using the small blade she kept in her jeans, she cut open the new box of toilet paper and started stacking them on the brown, circular tray. She was counting off what she needed in her head, when the lights suddenly cut out.

"Hey!" she yelled up towards the stairs. "im still down here turn them back on!"

The scenario wasn't a new one. For whatever reason, the light switch that controlled the whole basement was located at the top of the stairs. Sometimes the cooks would flip it and walk away, a bad joke that sucked for the person on the receiving end, but Eddie wasn't in the mood for it today.

"turn the fucking lights back on! i mean it!"

"ask nice" a voice hollered back.

Eddie dropped what was in her arms and felt her bladder almost let go. It was a moment of pure terror, the kind when your heart and lungs splashes down into the acids of your stomach. She didn't want to be trapped down here in the dark, and she especially didn't want to be trapped in the dark with him.

"turn the lights back on Mac!"

"well that wasn't very nice at all" his voice, coming from the stairwell now, responded. " wanna try again?"

"what the fuck are you doing?" she asked, her voice losing its edge and revealing her unease.

It was impossible not to panic now. He was advancing on her in the pitch black basement almost silently. All she could hear was his breathing and his soft footsteps until he spoke again. She was amazed that he hadn't run into any of the boxes that littered the floor. Could this guy see in the fucking dark?

"you don't call," he mused, closer, almost right in front of her. "you don't write…"

She felt the heat coming of his chest just before her reached her, and she shoved the tray she'd been gripping towards him as she tried to bolt past. He ripped it away from her and threw it aside, catching the tails of her apron and dragging her back into his arms.

"mm" he hummed, burying his nose into her hair. He clamped one hand tight over her mouth and dropped the other one down to coast over her stomach. "how's the baby?"

Eddie bucked her whole body but he only tightened his arm around her waist, anticipating her and leaning back when she kicked her feet out in front of her. She could hear him chuckling, feel the scruff of his cheek on hers. He smelled good, like motor oil that's seeped deep into the skin. His body was wonderfully warm.

As much as she tried to focus on hating him, the feeling of his solid chest and arms was like the rush of her favorite narcotic. He was that way, something dangerously intoxicating, something you would give up everything in your life to pursue. She could feel her resolve weakening. Any kind of contact was too much. It overloaded the synapsis in her brain and she couldn't think.

He stepped backwards with her. She jerked again, thinking she could catch him off guard, but he only squeezed harder. He held her the way you would a feral cat, close and tight to his body, not letting her getting the space needed to recoil and strike.

She was pulling at his wrists, trying to get him to release her, when he stopped shuffling and took his arm away from her waist. She could feel in the way that he moved that he was reaching for something, muscles in his chest shifting and pulling. Now that his grip had weakened, she took the opportunity and spun hard, desperately trying to twist free.

Unexpectedly, the lights popped back on. She screamed from behind his hand, trying to alert whoever was at the top of the stairs, but quickly stopped. She realized he was chuckling and she turned to look. It was easy to tear free from him once his shoulders began to heave with laughter.

It was him who had restored the power. He had maneuvered them towards the back shelves and flipped a hidden lightswitch. She was in so much disbelief that she didn't even run.

"Terry made me swear not to tell" He laughed, reading the shock on her face. "likes hearing you girls scream from down here when he shuts 'em off"

"what? how the hell do you know about it?"

"Did the electrical in this building" he shrugged, producing a cigarette and lighting it with his zippo. "im intimate with all the dark places"

"you can't smoke in here" She said distractedly. She still couldn't believe there had been an alternative lightswitch down here this entire time. It was mind boggling to think of how close she had been to her solution all those times she had been terrified down here.

He snorted but otherwise ignored the comment, continuing and flicking the ash onto the ground. He was leaning back against the shelves casual and comfortable, clearly not in any hurry. Eddie, on the other hand, had to get back to work. Maybe Mac could just do whatever he wanted in this town but she sure as shit couldn't. She needed this job, and she didn't want to get caught smoking down here with him like some underclassmen too stupid to know any better. She had tables upstairs she needed to get back to.

"so you livin' here now?"

Eddie almost answered, if only to speed the conversation along, but at the last second she hesitated.

"i know that you are" he scowled at her.

"well then why even ask?" she scowled right back, forgetting that she was scared and instead starting to get angry. She was sick of him messing with her. He was such a pain in the ass. She moved to step past him, but it surprised her when he didn't do anything to stop her. He just stood back and watched her go, the paper of his cigarette burning audibly in the heavy silence between them.

Eddie abandoned the tray of toilet paper and napkins, instead heading towards the stairs and resolving to come back later for them. She stopped short when the lights cut out again, but only for a moment. The light from the hall at the top of the stairs was enough to illuminate the last few feet, and when she turned to glance back at him, all she saw was the cherry ember of his cigarette.

xXxXxXxXx

Later that night, locked up tight inside her tiny dwelling, Edith sorted her money into piles. It was her ritual every night. She would pull out the envelope she kept hidden, and then sit cross-legged on her bed and slowly integrate the days take into the stacks of twenties, tens and fives.

She hated the quiet, so she always turned the television on to something mindless that could serve as background noise. Her favorite was something that she didn't have to pay total attention to, something entertaining and totally uneducational. Tonight it was that new show "You" that she had heard everybody talking about. She didn't know what episode of the series if was but she got the jist of it. Obsessive guy stalks clueless girl via all her public social media accounts. It made Eddie glad she had deleted her facebook a long time ago. After all, Mac was capable of pretty much anything he set his mind to, so she wouldn't put it past him to try and violate her privacy in the same way the creep from the show had.

She drank whiskey while she organized the bills in front of her. They were grouped into tiny piles of $100 and then arranged next to each other so she could count them all in a row. She would do estimations afterwards in a notebook, drafting how much longer she would have to stay based on what she typically took home in a month after rent, food, and the ever present bottle of whiskey she kept above the stove. In a little while she was going to reach her goal, and then she was going to see if she really had the guts to leave this town.

She gathered all the cash together into a hefty stack and rezipped it up into the diners old deposit envelope. Then she wrapped it in a black plastic bag and stashed it under the almost full one in the trash can in the small kitchen. After what had happened before, she had made sure to hide it in a place that could be easily overlooked.

Eddie was replenishing her drink when the doorbell rang. She cursed herself for watching the scary show, and an unwelcome shiver raced down her spine as she stared through the hallway to the suddenly menacing door. She held her breath, willing whoever it was to just go away, when the pounding started. The painted wooden door vibrated in its frame as it continued.

The glass she had been holding smashed to the floor and she jumped, bringing her bare foot up and coming back down on a sharp piece of it. Somebody was screaming from the television screen and she hoped it covered the small noise of pain she couldn't help making. She squeezed the cut in both hands and cursed as quietly as she could. The blood from her wound slipped out from between her fingers and started to drip to the floor, the warm liquid oozing out like thin lava.

"i forgot to tell you Eddie" Mac called to her from the other side of the door. He paused for a moment and she heard him fumbling with something. He sounded drunk. "i forgot to tell you, that when Terry had me run the electrical in the diner -"

"oh no" Eddie whispered to herself, realizing too late that the sound she had heard had been keys.

"he had me fix it up in this place too"

The lock turned and the door swung open. Mac had his coveralls tied around his waist and his favorite red flannel rolled up to his elbows. His forearms were almost as impressive as his shoulders, and Eddie had to marvel at the sight of him. He practically dripped with lust; it was impossible not to react to his presence.

He shut the door behind him but didn't bother locking it. There wasn't anything worse than him out there, not for miles, and thanks to her sudden injury, he could tell Eddie wasn't going anywhere fast. When she tried to hop towards the bedroom, Mac bust out laughing.

"seriously?" he taunted her. "think i aint guna catch you ya cripple?"

He walked towards her, stopping once he was standing right in front of her and their chests were almost touching. Eddie had let go of her foot to stand at her full height, her only defense mechanism now that she could no longer out run him. He smirked at her, reaching behind her to grab the towel off the stove handle and then stooping down to catch her ankle his hand. He inspected the gash, prodding it with his thick fingers to make sure there wasn't any glass left inside, and the contact made her try and draw back. He held her easily though, pressing the towel hard against the cut and then wrapping it around her foot. He tied it tight enough to make her gasp, and he smiled to himself at the way she sounded when she did.

As he stood back up, he crooked one arm behind the bend in her knees and braced the other behind her shoulders, swinging her up into his arms and then depositing her on the counter. She didn't have time to complain. She was perched up and out of the debris before she even realized what was happening.

Eddie could hear the remaining glass crunching beneath his heavy boots as he side-stepped to wet another rag under the sink. He offered it to her and she started to gently wipe the fresh blood away from her toes and heel. The blood had gotten all over her, something she noticed he kept staring intently at.

"what?" she sneered. "this is your fucking fault anyway"

He was leaning on the counter in front of her, his arms gripping the imitation granite and trapping her between them. The veins in his arms throbbed with life. Lucky for her, he was busy trying to gather all the pieces of glass together into a pile with his foot, so he didn't catch her staring.

"what do you want Mac?"

He as quiet for a moment longer, contemplating and toeing the broken glass around. He still wasn't looking at her. She kept glimpsing all these tiny moments, these childlike traits in him that made him seem almost human. He was beating around the bush she realized, he was embarrassed for some reason. Then, as quickly as he had slipped into it, he shook it off.

"M'hungry" he told her finally. Rolling his shoulders back so that his spine straightened. His eyes were mean again, like a dog that's been conditioned to appear threatening. "Now where's yer damn broom at?"

He found it leaning in the corner and went about sweeping the broken glass while she swigged straight from the bottle of whiskey. Her one and only glass had been demolished, and even if it wasn't going to help the bleeding, this would help with the pain.

Eddie passed him the bottle, watching him for a moment longer before deciding to take pity on him. Even if he was too proud to be vulnerable, she could tell this was as close as he could get to it. He had broken into her space, sure, and there was the issue of her shredded foot, but he hadn't gotten handsy with her. For Mac, that was practically asking nice. Eddie took the convenient lie of preparing a meal as a means to keep him docile, and she told herself it was the easiest way to get rid of him. In the top left ventricle of her heart though, the place where you love somebody to death, she wanted to feed him. She was happy he'd come to her.


	7. Chapter 7

**this chapter came out of nowhere!**

 **also, whenever i write, i always find myself adding in a line or catchphrase from other movies/shows. Most of the time its one of normans characters because it helps me visualize him better. I can imagine him and the way his voice sounds if ive actually heard him say it before (like "people in hell want slurpees") and it helps to keep everything rolling. I put one in this chapter, see if you can find it :) i also added something from another movie which maybe you guys will recognize. let me know when you find them ! its like an easter egg hunt and i should probably add that i dont own red canyon, or any of normans characters, or anything that is copyrighted.**

 **: )**

Mac drove them to the next town over. It was bigger, but it was still a shit hole small town by the rest of the world's standards. The only difference, was that this one had a 24-hour store. They smoked a joint on the way, and by the time they arrived, Eddie was very stoned. She hadn't been smoking because she had always gotten it from him, and it was awkward as fuck to try and buy drugs from the guy you had told someone else to call the cops on. Her tolerance was lower than it had been in years.

She was busy trying to figure out if the word 'weird' had always felt so strange coming out of her mouth, repeating it over and over to herself, touching the tips of her fingers together and flexing her knuckles. Beside her, Mac was stubbing out his cigarette and mumbling something to himself as he patted his pockets.

"fucking wallet" he grumbled, searching the bench seat nearby for it. "musta left it at yer house"

Eddie rolled her eyes and barked out a laugh.

"what is this? trying to get me to pay? or just a clever tactic to end up back at my place?"

They had agreed that they would go back to Mac's house to eat after this. Eddie had only consented to cooking on the terms that she not have to clean up afterwards and that he give her painkillers for her foot. Both conditions were met by going to his place. She could abandon whatever dish she dirtied in his sink, and he had a practically never ending pain killer supply from that time that chick pushed him off the cliff.

"much easier to keep you trapped at mine" he said leaning into her. She froze, thinking he was going to kiss her, but he only smiled and reached to unlock the glove compartment. He opened it and grabbed a few of the bills he had stashed in there, grinning at her when she looked at him curiously.

"its fer making change when im working" he told her, locking it back up and then popping his door open. "c'mon"

"you fixed the door handle at least" she teased him, letting herself out and jumping down to the pavement.

"yeah, well, i got sick of having to open the door fer everyone like sum kinda gentlemen" he retorted.

"i doubt anyone would confuse you for that"

She grabbed a basket once they crossed through the automatic doors, but he quickly stole it away from her. He pushed her towards the motorized scooters instead, insisting that she use her injury as an excuse to ride one.

"theres no fucking way" She laughed, cringing when he sat on one and started testing out the controls. He went backwards and then tried to correct himself, zooming forward and crashing right into her. It collided with her knees and she jumped back, cursing loudly and making him snicker.

Eddie grimaced and massaged her legs, her anger reviving like an ember thats been fed oxygen. He was such a dick. Yet, somehow, here she was, grocery shopping for him. She wanted to throw in the towel, to tell him to fuck off and walk out, but she was worried he would leave her here if she did that. It had taken twenty minutes to drive here, and Eddie wasn't too keen on having to make the walk back on her sliced up foot.

"lets just get this over with" she told him. Her foot ached and now her knees were sore too. She should have just stayed home.

She heard the motor of the scooter whiring and she shut her eyes to try and compose herself, glad he was behind her and couldn't see her face. On the one hand, she was pissed and he was annoying as fuck. On the other hand though, the sound of him riding that thing slowly behind her was pretty funny.

Mac sped up and pulled around to the side of her. He looked ridiculous on the machine, his shoulders were rounded forward and he had to hunch over the handle bars just to fit. She really had to concentrate to not succomb to the giggles. Not long into the journey, the battery started to fade and he began to fall behind, which only made it harder to stay composed. In typical Mac fashion though, he just abandoned it when it died in the center of the store, getting off and walking away. It was someone elses problem now.

"you can't just leave it there" Eddie exclaimed, finally giving up the chirade and dissolving into laughter.

"sure i can," he told her as he caught up. "that things heavy as fuck, aint my fault they didn't charge it"

They were headed to the back of the store where the fridges were, playfully shoving each others shoulders and tripping eacothers feet up, when someone called Mac's name. He turned but Eddie didn't. She knew without looking that it was Jameson.

"what are you guys doing here?" Jameson asked, walking up to join them in front of the dairy section.

It was a stupid question and Eddie rolled her eyes. They were on the grocery side of a big box store, there was only so much they could be up to. She walked away to get cheese, leaving the men to themselves.

Even though she was high, and even though she knew she shouldn't care, Eddie couldn't help but feel annoyed. Not only had Mac broken into her apartment and basically kidnapped her, but he had also flirted with her the entire way here. She lied to herself and said going along with him was just to get him off her back, but in reality, she knew what she was getting into.

She had already forgiven herself for being weak, and now it was looking like she had jumped the gun. The disappointment was palpable. It washed over her like a nauseating wave. She felt so stupid.

Edde dug around in her head for her usual mantras, trying to tell herself that soon she would be leaving, soon he would miss her, but nothing was working. She felt duped, tricked into letting her guard down and believing he could be interested in her. Now he was just going to let her down again. It was all he was capable of.

To make matters worse, she quickly ran out of arm space since Mac had fucking insisted on the motorized cart and not let her take a basket. She was walking back towards where she had left him with Jameson, when she heard the sound of girlish laughter. It grated on her ears, the high-pitched sound of it, and she sighed. She knew who it belonged to. She knew the endless gaggle of girls had to be around here somewhere. Jamo was an even bigger slut than Mac, if that was possible, and she cringed at the sound of the elastic, female voices.

Rounding the corner just to be sure, Eddie saw Mac and Jameson right where they'd been when she first walked away. Except this time they had the added company of Georgia and Cindy. Watching Mac talk and laugh with them, standing there forgotten while he idly touched whatever part of Georgia he could, Eddie felt herself sway between anger and sadness.

She looked down at the groceries in her arms and her first instinct was to throw them. She wanted to pelt him with all the stuff he had insisted he wanted, including her.

Instead, mostly because she was irish and would deal with something being wrong for the rest of her life, Eddie turned and went back the way she came. When she passed the cart that Mac had left, she emptied what was in her arms into its front basket. Then she went back towards the front and passed through the sliding glass doors without looking back.

xXxXxXxXxXx

She was almost home by the time he pulled up beside her. He honked but she didn't slow down. Her animosity for him had gotten her this far, and even though her foot was throbbing, she had already proved to herself that she didn't need his help. She could see the lights of the truck stop that was attached to the diner from here. It was only a few more miles to her apartment.

She kept walking, determined to ignore him, but he wasn't ready to give up. His next move was to cut right in front of her, and she had to stop short when he almost ran over her foot.

"Eddie!" he yelled at her, killing the engine and jumping from the cab. "what the fuck are you doing girl?"

"get away from me Mac!" she shouted back at him, her voice coming out so harsh that it hurt her throat. "leave me alone, im sick of you wasting my time"

"what are you talking about? ive been fucking lookin' for ya"

"fuck off" she spat when he came towards her. "go hang out with Jamo and his groupies, im done with you messing with me"

"i aint messing with ya" Mac sneered, catching her shoulders and squeezing when she tried to jerk loose. "i like ya, is that so hard to believe?"

It was what she wanted to hear, but she was already too far gone in her anger to turn back. She was commited to burning this bridge, and it was going to happen right now. He couldn't see it in the darkness, but she was holding her keys in her fist. She had angled them all up between her fingers in a make-shift freddy krueger hand, and when he refused to let her go, she swiped at him as hard as she could.

He roared in pain and released her, recoiling and holding his face in his hand. While he was cursing and checking his hands for blood, Eddie took a step back. She wasn't stupid enough to try and run. He knew where she lived anyway so there wasn't anywhere to go.

"got-dammit!" Mac yelled. "the fuck if yer problem?"

He was pacing back and forth in front of her, grunting and looking at his bloody hand in a kind of disbelief. Continuing to retreat away from him, Eddie noticed the bags of groceries in the back of his truck. It made her heart hurt. She wished he could just consistently be an asshole so she could get past him, but he kept surprising her. All she wanted was to go with him and go about the evening as planned. She had to stick to her guns though. This man was an animal who only understood dominance.

He took a step towards her and she held up her weapon again, warning him not to. He thought about it for a moment, the pupils of his eyes darting back and forth, before his face contorted and got red.

"fine!" he shouted at her, the blood from his wound drying like war paint. "fuck you Eddie, i shoulda let Mikey fuckin' do what he wanted with ya"

He was saying the meanest thing he could of, but Eddie was grateful for it. As long as he was acting like a dick it was easy to remain firm in her decision to get away from him. It was all these unexpected moments of humanity that were throwing her off. She needed him to be a monster. Otherwise, she was going to want to curl up next to him for the rest of her life.

"get away from me Mac" she told him, the adrenaline leaving her body and making her limbs shake. She didn't really want him to go, but she felt like she had to follow through.

He furrowed his brow at her one last time, clenching his jaw so tight that she could see his heartbeat pulsing at the hinge of it. Eddie wondered if she had ever seen him this mad. She couldn't believe he hadn't retailiated yet.

Mac didn't say anything else, but she could tell by the way he stared at her that he wasn't done yet. After a moment he even smiled, holding his hands up in surrender and walking back around the hood of the truck to get to the drivers side door. On his way he pulled out his cellphone and punched in a number. He climbed into his truck but held off on starting it until the person on the other end had picked up. He wanted her to hear, she realized. He wanted to hurt her in a way that only he could.

"Jamo" he said, pressing the phone before his ear and shoulder to free his hands up to find a cigarette. "yeah, im on my way, no, I got rid of her. Yeah, tell Georgia I'm coming"

He started the engine after that, laughing at whatever Jameson had responded with and reversing to get back on the road. Eddie had to jump to avoid colliding with the tailgate, and the grit from the road pelted her when he spun his tires. The tactic worked. She felt miserable. He had been coming to hang out with her, and she had ruined it. She watched his tail lights disappear and sighed, hating herself. After a moment, knowing there was no other way to get there, she started walking towards her apartment again.

When she got back home, she sat at the table for a little while with the bottle of whiskey. The energy of the apartment had hit her hard, and she was still recovering from it. She had left the house so excited to be going with him, and now that she was back, she was drenched in disappointment. Reminders of the way she felt when she had left were everywhere.

She found his wallet just outside the door. She surmised that he had probably dropped it when retrieving the keys from his pocket, and she felt another pang of guilt her chest. When she bent to pick it up, it was as if it weighed a hundred pounds. He had come here, to be with her, despite the countless other things he could have been doing on a friday night and she had fucked it up. To say she was miserable would have been a dilution of the word.

Sighing, trying to purge the energy from her body as she exhaled, Eddie eyed the brown wallet in front of her. The leather was worn smooth from years of use, and the corners were rounded in. She wondered how long he had had it. Then she wondered what was in it.

Embolded by the liquor, she flopped it open in her palms and began to dig through it. There was a considerable amount of cash, something she was tempted to help herself too, but ultimately resisted. She looked at his license and grumbled to herself about how irritatingly handsome he was. Only Mac could look pissed as hell but somehow sexy.

Trying to distract herself from the way the image of him stared back at her, Eddie looked through the random reward clubs stashed where one might store credit or debit cards. She felt something lodged in the very back that had a glossy texture and she pulled on it. When she saw what it was, she stared dumbfounded at it as the chemicals in her brain surged and churned.

It was a picture of her. It was her mugshot.

xXxXxXxX

Eddie took a shot of whiskey, if only to try and calm herself down enough to process what was in front of her. Her face, smug as fuck, was grinning back up at her. She hadn't seen this picture in years, and the memories flooded into her like a river cresting its banks. Soon everything was saturated.

She wasn't ashamed to admit that she looked cute as hell in it. She was a bondafide hot mess, complete with smudged eye makeup and a hickey on her neck. Her hair was messy and her eyes were wet and glazed looking. She was obviously high, but she was easily on the good side of the "before" pictures you see in a long line of head shots, the kind where someone starts out beautiful and then slowly degrades over a decade of arrests.

This had easily been the best night of her life, or at least the most fun, and she couldnt believe he had this. Hell, she didn't even have it anymore and it was her favorite picture of her. This was the night that she had broken into the cop shop.

There had been a party in the canyons that night. Mac had been flirting with Eddie, feeding her wild turkey, and she was giddy with excitement. He had a pretty steady rotation in town but tonight was her turn and she was thrilled. So when he got pulled over on the way back to his house, Eddie was understandably disappointed. He got arrested for drunk driving and since Eddie couldn't operate stick, they had towed his truck. She had felt like such a loser, and she knew he probably resented the fact that she couldn't just drive it home for him and save him the impound fee. She didn't want him to remember her that way, so she came up with a plan.

Instead of waiting until he got out the next day, Eddie took it upon herself to climb in through the open window someone had left open in the summer heat. Originally she had thought they would just leave when she let him out of the holding cell, but Mac had been so worked up becaue of the the surprise jailbreak, that he ended up fucking her right there in the station.

Eddie blushed and covered her face in one hand, remembering how mad Greg had been when he'd found them. He'd arrested her to try and scare her but it only made her feel even more badass. Since he couldn't trust them to be in the same cage, Greg handcuffed Mac to the chair and left Eddie locked in it. It didn't matter though, they spent the whole night laughing and egging eachother on through the bars. Mac had been so impressed by her that night. She could tell in the way he looked at her, it was in the temperature of his eyes.

xXxXxXxXxXx

Eddie lay awake in her bed the next day, debating about whether or not she should keep the picture. She wanted it, but she wasn't sure what would happen when she returned his wallet without it. It was like a game of tug-of-war with her ego. When she worried about him realizing it was gone, she felt cocky. He probably didn't even know it was in there. She was kidding herself if she thought he had kept it on purpose.

Except when she went the other route and imagined him not mentioning it, her heart all but fell apart. The way she had felt last night when she discovered it, that rush of hope and promise, was almost too incredible to forfeit.

In the end though, mostly because she absolutely needed to know if he only had it accidentally, Eddie stashed the mugshot in her book. She resolved to keep it unless he specifically asked for it back. It seemed fair enough, and she deserved the image as a consolation prize if the truth had to be so devastating.

She had the day off so she went to the bar around lunchtime to try and find him. It wasn't too of a far walk, but Eddie could see his truck from a long ways off so she had the time to steal herself for any possible outcome.

He was sitting at the bar, hunched over an almost empty plate, when Eddie walked up to him and offered him the wallet. Mac quickly realized what she had and snatched it out of her hands, rifling through it quickly and making a face when he realized that things were out of order.

"you go through this?" he asked her.

"why?" she snorted at him. "is anything missing?"

He slammed the wallet down on the bar but Eddie didn't flinch. She was too busy floating away to be intimidated by his usual antics. Pleasure fizzed in her chest like soda. It was as if her very blood were carbonated, the way her heart swelled with a feeling of pure happiness.

It had been there on purpose. He carried a picture of her in his wallet. He liked her.

"where is it?" Mac growled at her.

"wheres what?"

He chuckled to himself and put a cigarette between his lips. All his movements were so fluid that sometimes it was like a magic trick, watching him produce those things out of seemingly nowhere.

"you know what im talking about Eddie, now give it back"

She stared at him, raising one eyebrow and feigning ignorance. He dipped his head down towards the flame of the zippo and then exhaled the smoke in her direction, snapping it shut with a flick of his wrist.

"wasn't easy to get you know, He never officially booked you"

She couldn't help it, she smiled. He watched it race all the way up to her eyes and his own pupils dilated, blood pumping faster in and out of his heart. He was like an animal that had smelled blood and was getting closer and closer. Soon she was going to be his, no matter how much she thought she could get away.

"so ya guna give it back or do i hafta come get it?"

"why do you even have it at all?"

Mac huffed and turned away from her then, facing back to the front and returning to his whiskey. He wasn't about to get into it with her here in front of all these people. Eddie, sustained by the knowedge that he cared about her enough to even have it, didn't bother pushing the subject. She didn't need him to say it outloud.

When he continued to ignore her, she turned and went back towards the door. She had accomplished what she set out to do, and even though a cold beer sounded really good right now, she wanted to quit while she was ahead. This was the closest thing she could expect to a 'pleasant' encounter with the man, and she might as well leave on a good note.

He didn't follow her. His cheek still ached from last night and he was still pissed. She may be ready to make ammends but he wasn't. Besides, he needed to distance himself from her publically. He didn't want to be implicated when she went missing.

xXxXxXxXxXx

 **let me know what you think !  
** 3/ magz


	8. Chapter 8

Eddie walked back to her apartment slowly. She kept expecting his truck to come roaring up behind her, and when it didn't, she had to stifle her disappointment. Trying to anticipate or brace herself for whatever was coming was impossible because she never really knew what was going on. One minute he wanted her, and then the next one he didn't. The emotional turmoil was absolutely ruining her, and the constant confusion was starting to make her feel like she was going insane.

When she got back, she immediately retrieved the picture from its hiding spot. She held it in her hands like it was evidence.

'He kept this," she whispered to herself. "He asked for this back"

Staring down at the image, the thoroughly fucked and happy version of herself, Edith swallowed all the excitement she had experienced when she first found it. It felt like a boulder going down her throat, but she let it drop all the way down. The picture didn't change anything. He was still a dick, still incapable of relationships, and she was still leaving.

Eddie huffed out a large breath, returning the picture to its role as a a placeholder and setting the book down by her bed. She needed to do something else, anything to get her mind off this. She wasn't due to work until the following morning, and the day stretched out in front of her like a desolate wasteland. It was as if the very landscape of the place had infiltrated her psyche.

Miserable, she retrieved the whiskey bottle that she kept above the stove, taking it with her to the bathroom and resolving to scald herself in a hot bath while she drank it. There wasn't anything else to do.

xXxXxXx

Weeks passed. Eddie kept waiting for some kind of contact from Mac, but it never came. They still saw one another almost every other day, but they never spoke.

Mac would go to the diner to get lunch a few times a week, but Eddie never went to the bar. It felt off limits to her. Almost every place in town felt off limits. She stuck close to her apartment and picked up extra shifts at work. One Friday afternoon when she got off, she went to the liquor store and had nearly walked right into him. He ignored her when she tried to ask him how he was though, and she bought her bus ticket that very same day to cheer herself up. If he didn't care, then she didn't want to either.

She wanted him to just be a memory. The kind that you keep in the back of your mind until something very specific triggers it. Eddie had countless boyfriends that she never thought of except when she saw their birthday on a piece of paper or a digital clock. Mac needed to become that insignificant to her.

Her departure date loomed on her calendar. She found herself wishing time would slow down for a moment, somehow stretch so she could relish what little time she had left here. Even though she was busy trying to convince herself that she hated him, Eddie knew she was really going to miss him. It was awful to feel that way for a person that acted like they could care less about you, but it was useless to try and deny it.

Time didn't take pity on her though. If anything, it raced forward just to spite her, and suddenly it was the day before she was scheduled to leave. She was in the basement of the diner, gathering what she needed to restock, when Mac crept up on her.

"Heard yer leaving"

Eddie stiffened at the sound of his voice. It had been over a month since he'd spoken to her, and she couldn't help it. She had heard him talk plenty since that night on the side of the road, but it was always directed at someone else. The way her body reacted to him paying attention to her was impossible to ignore. She practically vibrated with excitement when he addressed her.

She shut her eyes and ticked her head, sending a cleansing shiver down her spine and snapping herself out of it. She didn't want to act like a dog that was overwhelmed in the presence of its owner anymore.

"That's right" she said without turning, wanting him to leave before she lost all of her willpower. "Good riddance, right? Isn't that what you said?"

"What? do you write that shit down or something? How the fuck do you remember everything i say"

"Oh, you're right, its my fault I have a functioning brain"

He didn't say anything and so she turned to look at him, scowling when she realized he wasn't even paying attention anymore. He was up on low stack of two-by-fours, concentrating on balancing and ignoring her latest insult.

"Mac."

He shushed her as he continued to walk forward, stretching his arms out to either side and bowing his head to watch his feet. He was wearing a hoodie that stretched tight over his broad shoulders and he had the sleeves pushed up to his elbows. She didn't know what it was about his forearms but she had to shake her head to keep herself from staring. They were mouth watering.

"I don't have time for this" she snapped.

"Oh, sure you do. What's he guna do? Fire ya?"

He had her there. It was her last day of work, so technically there wasn't anything to lose. Still though, she didn't want to be available for him. She wanted to be too busy, just like he always was.

"Well, what do you want then?" She scoffed. "Want me to score you on your gymnastics routine?"

"Now I remember what I like so much about you" he chuckled as he turned to head back in her direction. He had his hands down by his sides now, but he lifted one arm to gently shake his finger at her. "It's that mouth"

Embarrassed suddenly, Eddie shut the mouth in question and took a step back from him. He smirked when he read her body language, and after taking in the sight of her for a moment, he hopped off of his make-shift balance beam to stand right in front of her.

"Heard you were looking for bars"

At first Eddie furrowed her brow and looked at him skeptically. She didn't know what he was talking about, and she assumed it was some kind of trick. It wasn't until he pulled the orange vial from his pockets that she made the connection.

"Oh," she said palming her forehead. "Yeah" She had forgotten that she had asked her coworker for Xanax the other day. She wanted it for her trip, hoping she could just sleep through all the discomfort she felt at actually leaving. Of course that had led back to Mac.

"How many?"

"I don't know, two?"

He chuckled and shook his head, unscrewing the lid and shaking the container until a few small rectangular pills fell out.

"Don't even know what to charge you that" he admitted with a grin. "Guess you kin just think of it as a going away present"

"Thanks" 

He nodded at her and folded his arms over his chest, keeping his hands well above the opposite elbow, high up on his ribcage. She had never seen anyone else stand the same way, with their thumbs hooking up like that. He was such a rarity.

Eddie took in the sight of him, helpless to resist the opportunity. The angles of his face were sharp when you looked at him head on, but she knew his chin and nose were rounded when you viewed them from the side. She couldn't help but imagine him that way, that version of him that she saw when she was laying in the crook of his arm. He looked so soft when he had his eyes closed.

Faltering, Eddie broke eye contact first. She managed some kind of breathy laughter, but she had to whip back around before her face fell apart. The minutes pulled and stretched, time once again mocking her, but neither one of them said anything else.

Eventually, Mac headed for the stairs, leaving the girl alone so she could continue feeling sorry for herself. He didn't console people, and even if he did, she didn't need comforting. He knew something she didn't. He knew she wasn't going anywhere.

XxXxXxXxX

Later on, Eddie found herself walking to the bar. It was her last night in town and she wanted a drink, regardless of the fact that she had booze in her apartment. Mostly she just wanted to be near him, even if they didn't talk. She felt so good when she was in the same room with him. The encounter in the basement had left her wanting, and even though she knew he had probably done it on purpose, she was helpless to resist.

"Edith" Walter purred at her when she sat on an empty barstool. "Long time no see"

She smiled at the old man and put both arms up on the bar in front of her. It was habit to press her palms down flat against the worn out wood and feel where the lacquer was flaking. This whole town was like that, held together by stubbornness and varnish. Suddenly, she was glad she was leaving.

"I came to say goodbye"

Walter raised his eyebrows at that, acting surprised at the news. Eddie knew better though. Nothing happened here without this old coot hearing about it first.

"To me?" He mused "or to my son?"

As if on cue, a loud racket erupted from behind her. Eddie turned to look, and immediately found the source. It was Mac and his friends in the far back of the room. He hadn't noticed her yet, but the girl sitting on his lap had. Georgia locked eyes with her and smirked.

Eddie felt something inside her chest fracture. It was as if she suddenly had a gaping hole in her. All her nerve endings felt exposed in a cold wind that was rushing past her, each one igniting in a sudden burst of pain.

"Whiskey?" The old man asked her.

He turned his back on her when she nodded and Eddie tried to blink away the image of Mac with Georgia perched on his leg. It was obvious that Mac only addressed her when no one else was looking, but she had still held out hope that maybe he would be happy to see her. He had sought her out in the basement today after all, and he had given her those pills when he could have charged her.

Her head hurt and so did her heart. It was all so confusing. She couldn't read him and she couldn't trust him. All at once, and much too late, she wondered what she was doing in his territory.

To add insult to injury, Georgia came up behind and leaned on the bar right next to her. She was acting as if she needed to get Walters attention, but Edith could feel the girls eyes on her. It was almost impossible not to turn and address her, and Eddie didn't resist the impulse for long.

"Hi Georgia"

"Oh, hi Eddie, didn't see you there"

"Right"

The girls stared at each other. Eddie was curious as to what Georgia wanted, so she left the air between them empty in case the other girl wanted to speak. It was then, in the absence of conversation, when Georgia pivoted her body to face Eddie head on, that she noticed the blonde was wearing Macs hoodie.

It shouldn't have hurt, but it did. It hurt like hell.

"Guess I just didn't expect it" Georgia smirked, reading the recognition on Eddies face.

Eddie wanted to say something clever, something to redeem herself, but her throat was closing like a vice. She could feel tears racing towards the front lines of her eyes, stinging and hot. She felt stupid. She had made a mistake coming here.

She tried to smile as she pushed her drink away. Her body was revolting against her, spiraling towards a breakdown that she felt helpless to avoid. She was defeated. She needed to retreat.

Leaving a few bills on the counter for Walter, Eddie nodded at him and then walked quickly towards the door, keeping her head down in the hopes that no one would notice how upset she was. It was pointless though, because her shoulders had already started to heave and she had to cover her mouth to stifle the choking sounds that wanted to escape her throat. She was positive that everyone had seen her make a fool of herself yet again. It was all so very classic.

Her mind was constantly playing tricks on her, but ultimately, when she thought it through, she was thankful it had coerced her into doing this. She needed this pain. Humiliating herself like that had been the final nail in her coffin. She was leaving tomorrow. She had to.

xXxXx

Mac watched the interaction between the two women from the table he sat at with his friends. He had seen Eddie coming from a long ways off, giving him plenty of time to casually offer the sweatshirt he was wearing to Georgia. He didn't know what it was with girls and men's hoodies, but he was willing to sacrifice one if it meant instigating a fight between the two.

It amused him, the way women got so territorial over him. He wasn't anything that could be claimed, but it was fun to watch them try to assert themselves over one another anyway.

When Eddie ran out, Mac had to physically stop himself from going after her. Her eyes were so goddamn green when she cried, and he wanted to feel the way her bird-like bones rattled in her chest when she tried to suppress it. He wanted to be there while she fell apart.

He knew he could pull it off if he really wanted. It would be relatively easy to ditch this other broad and slip away mostly unnoticed. He didn't even need an excuse to leave, he just could do it. Mac knew the route she took home, and he still had the keys to her apartment. No one would have to know.

Instead, he sighed and relaxed his body back into his seat, resolving to just stay put. He only had to be patient a little bit longer. Soon, all of his careful planning was going to pay off.

xXxXxXx

The next morning, Eddie gave Terry back to keys to the apartment and graciously accepted the ride he offered her to the bus station.

"Sorry to see you go," he told her as she opened the door to step out of his car. "But I love to watch you leave"

She grimaced at first but ended up smiling. Terry was a creep but she felt safe around him. He had a daughter somewhere and Eddie knew that she reminded him of her. He may have killed the lights every time she went past him to get into the basement, but other than that he was harmless.

"Well get a good look" she smirked at him, throwing her pack over her shoulder and slamming the door shut. "Cause I ain't coming back"

He nodded and chuckled around his ever present cigarette, waving her off and then turning the car back on. Eddie tried to smooth her hair back behind her ears but the wind was whipping it across her face. She was glad for the distraction though, she didn't want to keep looking for his truck.

Once she was on the bus, she rewarded herself for her bravery by eating the Xanax. She took a whole bar at once, trying to remember if the four perforated squares equated to 1mg or 2. It didn't matter. She figured she had enough anxiety for the benzo to eat, so she wasn't worried about passing out cold.

Eddie could feel her heartbeat in her throat. She shut her eyes and leaned her forehead against the glass of the window. The engine of the bus started and she squeezed her lids down tight against the tears that threatened there. This was it. He wasn't coming. She was leaving and he hadn't tried to stop her. This was really happening.

The small breath she took in next was more like a gasp, and she kept her eyes shut against the world outside and its indifference. She couldn't bear the thought of him not coming for her, so she let the pain into her heart in the hopes that it would kill everything it found there.

She felt the bus rattle as its gears shifted, and soon it was tugging her forward, away from the empty parking lot and onto the dusty road that led out of town. Eddie kept her eyes closed for a long time. She didn't want to acknowledge what the world looked like without him in it. She didn't want to see.

X

Hours later, she stepped off the bus to make her connection, groaning to herself about her two hour layover. Buses were so stupid. She should have just taken the train.

Except, there was no train. The only thing that came and left that town was a single, run down coach that took you to a nearby city. From there you could either take another bus west, or go east until you got to a proper train station. It didn't make since to her to backtrack like that, So Eddie had opted for the grey hound.

'Grey' she thought to herself as she shouldered her pack and sulked towards the terminal. 'Grey like malaise, like depression, the color of my dying heart'

She was being more dramatic than usual, but she really did feel like shit. The Xanax hadn't made her happy like she thought it would. Instead it had made her feel dismal and without any energy. In an effort to console herself, and since her judgement was completely dulled, Eddie took another half of a bar.

She found the bathroom and splashed water on her face to try and wipe off the grime she felt there. She only needed to stay awake for a little bit longer, then she could sleep this all off on the next bus. Thinking maybe a cigarette would help, she stumbled outside to find someone she could bum one from.

There wasn't anybody standing nearby, but she could smell one burning from just around the corner. She tucked her hair behind her ears, and went towards it. When she rounded the building she was temporarily blinded by the sun, but she recognized the shape of him in an instant.

"Hey pretty girl"

XxXxXxXxXx

Eddie was way too high to pretend like she wasn't happy to see him. She threw her arms around his neck, something she had never done before, and stood on the very tips of her toes to embrace him. It was something he hadn't anticipated, but he was glad he had managed to lure her away from the loading dock just the same. It was easier if she just disappeared, even if she was suddenly willing to go with him. Everyone in town had seen him ignoring her for months, and he didn't want anyone here seeing them together now. It would ruin all his fun.

She was easy to get back to the truck after he had carefully unlatched her arms from his shoulders. All he had to do was offer to take her someplace to eat. She slipped in an out of character on the way, sometimes insisting that he had tricked her, and other times laughing for no apparent reason at all.

"You drugged me" she slurred at him, losing more and more of her motor functions as time went on. "That's...bad"

"You drugged yerself ya lil shit" he laughed at her. Eddie had devoured her happy meal, something he had gotten her to be funny, and now she was starting to tilt to one side.

She gasped like he had offended her, trying to push herself back into an upright position, only to fail and start giggling.

"I only did it cause of you though" she said matter of factly. "So its _like_ you drugged me"

"That's not how that works sweetheart"

"Oh, say it again" she crooned. She fell over onto the bench seat and curled into a ball, her knees close to her chest and her arm bent up beneath her head.

"Say what again?"

"Call me sweetheart"

He would do no such thing. Not that it mattered, because the girl was asleep before he had the chance to even register what she'd said. He knew when she woke up, whenever that might be, she probably wasn't going to be as easy going. He snickered to himself at how much fun it was going to be when she woke up. Then, smiling to himself at the way she felt tucked up next to him, he accelerated towards their destination.

XxXxXxXxXx

 **Only one or two more chapters left :) buckle up because its about to get roughhhhhhh.**

 **Thank you Krissy, Aly and Mia for your comments! It feels like finding out my crush likes me too when i see i have reviews, its the bessssst.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Thank you ladies for your reviews! this chapter is kind of short, but the next, final one will be longer. I finally got my new device set up so im back to my old, wonderful keyboard! yessss!**

 **I hope you've all enjoyed this story :) let me know what you think !**

When Eddie woke up, her head was killing her. She looked around, taking in the visual of a bedroom she didn't recognize, and immediately shot out of the bed. A fresh slice of pain lanced her just behind her eyes and she quickly shut them. The headache was blaring, and she had to press her fingers as hard as she could against her temples to try and alleviate it.

"Fucking Christ" she muttered to herself, practically boring her fingers into her own skull to try and relieve the pressure.

The was when she remembered the Xanax, and how she had stupidly taking way more than she needed. Then came the horrifying moment of trying to remember what had happened next.

She couldn't hardly think with the way her head was pounding. She winced at the discomfort furrowing her brow caused, concentrating as hard as she could to try dredge up some kind of memory from yesterday.

She could remember eating chicken nuggets, and she had been laughing, but she couldn't remember why. Except, that couldn't be right. There was no way she could have been laughing, she had been too upset about -

"Hey pretty girl"

Eddie jumped at the sound of his voice, her head ringing out with a fresh throb of pain.

"Fuck!" She snapped, startled and pissed off. "Goddammit, what the fuck?"

"Head hurt?"

"Gah" she had the heels of her palms pressed against her face now. This wasn't happening. This couldn't be happening.

"How many of those things did you fucking eat?" He asked her.

Eddie turned away from him as if that could possible deter him. It actually made him laugh out loud. She groaned, trying to process everything around her. Things were computing in her head but not as fast as they should be. She didn't know where she was, and she certainly didn't know why Mac was here, although it was intriguing. She needed aspirin. No, she was going to need morphine for this.

"What happened?" She mumbled.

"Oh, you don't remember sweetheart?"

She rolled her eyes at him and then groaned, gauging them with her thumbs a second after to try and get rid of the sudden agony. Every time she tried to recollect the events of yesterday she came up blank. She had no idea how she had ended up here with him. She had memories of the first bus ride, eating fast food in his truck, and then nothing.

"Where are we?"

"Can't tell ya"

"Fuck you"

"Say when"

Eddie looked around the room. There was a window on the wall behind her and she went towards it. She couldn't believe it when she looked out and she didn't see desert.

Instead, it was green. Green, brown and blue. It took her damaged cognitive processes a moment to put it all together, but when she realized she was staring at trees, at a actual fucking forest, the alarm in her rose like a wave.

"Mac, where the fuck are we?"

"Can't tell ya"

Eddie was too busy taking in the sight of the lush grass and the intense, bright blue of the sky to even hear him though. It was crisp looking, and she knew it was because of the actual moisture in the air. Looking at it made her feel like she had just taken a bite of a ripe apple. It was beautiful. She was in awe, and she wasn't listening. Mac didn't care though. He left her there, staring out the window with her mouth open, and went to find where he'd set his drink down.

XXXXX

"Lemme get this straight" Eddie groaned, massaging the base of her skull at the back of her neck. "You kidnapped me -"

"You wanted to come" he interrupted. "You practically begged me"

"You kidnapped me, she repeated, unconvinced. "and you brought me here, to this isolated cabin in a state that you wont disclose, and now you expect me to cook for you"

"And bake" he added.

Eddie was sitting at the small table in the kitchen. Her head still ached something awful, but she had persuaded Mac into giving her something for the pain. She still couldn't quite wrap her head around this grand scheme of his though, mostly because she couldn't understand why he expected her to just go along with it.

"No fucking way" She laughed

"If you don't cook then you don't eat, hows that?"

"You can't fucking keep me here Mac" Eddie barked at him, starting to actually get angry. At first she had been curious and maybe even a little excited, but now that the pain was retreating, she could finally see what he was getting at, and it was absurd.

He wanted her to live here, in this cabin, and cook for him when he 'came around'. That was how he had detailed it to her. She couldn't believe his arrogance, but at the same time, she wasn't really surprised either.

Wherever they were, it was close enough for him to get back to Utah in a reasonable amount of time. It seemed that way at least, because he was only planning on keeping her here, and not staying himself. Eddie thought that might mean it was Nevada. If that was true, then this had to be Lake Tahoe, based on the trees outside. All of it was still just a guess though.

"Ain't no where to go" he growled at her, as if he could see her trying to work it our in her head. He sat down at the table and leaned towards her. "Yer in the middle of the fucking woods"

"In every direction? How many miles each way?"

"A lot" he huffed. "And don't fucking kid yourself Ed, yer a mess at that stuff"

It was true so she didn't bother arguing. She was awful at orienting herself, and she had absolutely no sense of direction. Even in the flat desert, where it was easy to locate the sun in the sky, she got confused sometimes. Here, she was going to be hopeless.

"Why the fuck did you bring me here?"

"already told ya" he smirked at her. "Wanted ya for myself"

"And you couldn't have accomplished that back in red canyon?"

"Fucking tried that" he said, ticking his head quick to one side. His eyes were changing right in front of her. He was getting excited, a predator that couldn't wait to start hunting. "But you kept wantin' to run away"

She scoffed and shook her head. This wasn't getting her anywhere, this talking to him like he had a rational side.

"You're insane" she told him.

"Am I?" He asked her, raising his eyebrows. "Think about it darlin'"

"Think about what? That you're a fucking psycho? I don't have to, it's obvious. And don't call me darling"

He snickered at her and put a cigarette between his lips.

"Lemme put it this way" he said, pausing to light himself up and blow a puff of smoke at her. "You gave your keys to Terry and got on a bus out of town, right?"

"So? What's your point?"

"If ya'd shut the fuck up i could get to it" he growled, offering her the Marlboro. She waved it off and he shrugged, taking another drag and then continuing. "You quit yer job and made a bigggg show about coming to the bar to say bye to the old man didn't ya?"

"I-"

"So everybody's already expectin' ya to be gone, ain't they?

Suddenly, the pieces were coming together in her head. It was all happening so fast, and the smoke from the cigarette was starting to make her dizzy.

"Yeah but - "

"Lemme finish" he barked at her, the sudden harshness of his voice making her clam up. "Ain't nobody seen us together since that night ya clawed my damn face up"

Unable to help herself, Eddie looked right at him. The scar was fading, but she could still see it. She always thought he had let her off pretty easy for that, and now she knew why.

"do you know what that means princess? You wanna take a fuckin' guess?"

Eddie dropped her eyes. She knew exactly what it meant. No one was going to realize she was missing. Even if they miraculously, somehow, did notice, no one was ever going to assume that he had anything to do with it.

To the people in Red Canyon, she was in California. To the people in California, she didn't even exist. He had planned this, she realized. He had planned everything.

When she looked back towards him, he was grinning at her like a cat who had just swallowed no less than a dozen canaries. He had his pointer and index fingers split around the dwindling cigarette, and now he extinguished it in the ashtray in front of her.

"So what's fer dinner then?" He smirked.

XxXxXxXxXx

Eddie sat on the edge of the bed she had woken up on, scowling to herself as she listened to the television blare in the other room. He had locked her in after she had flat out refused to be his step-ford house wife, and now he was sulking in the other room with the volume of her favorite show turned up as loud as it could go to make sure she could hear it.

It was then, trapped in the room like a kid sent to time out, that Eddie found the bags full of her clothes. She had assumed he had thrown them out months ago when she had abandoned them to leave with Greg. She couldn't believe he still had them.

It made her think of the picture of her, and she quickly dug through her pack to try and find it. The book was there, but the mugshot was gone, and so was all her cash. She had either lost it in her Xanax fueled haze, or he had rifled through her things until he'd found it. She had a pretty good guess about which had scenario had happened, but it didn't lessen her confusion.

Eventually, and because there was no way she was backing down and cooking for him, Eddie crawled into the bed and tried to sleep. It wasn't too difficult with the opiates saturating her bloodstream, and she slept through the night without waking up once.

When she did wake up though, with a fresh headache and an overwhelming desire for caffeine, she was happy to see that the door he had locked last night was standing open. She wandered through the small house, and found him drinking from coffee on the front steps.

"g'mornin sunshine" he drawled at her.

She fought the urge to kick him. The only thing stopping her was the very real possibility of him kicking her back. He wasnt stable, and normal rules didn't apply with him. He had demonstrated as much when he brought her here, wherever 'here' was.

"Forgive me for not wanting to play house with you Mac"

He snorted at her and kept looking out over the yard. The mug looked so tiny in his massive hands. Everything looked small compared to him.

"Always tryin ya pick a fight with me" he snickered, clearly not put off by her mood. He was having too much fun with this, and his enjoyment only made her more infuriated. "Ya wanna put yer money where yer mouth is?"

Mac finished what was in his cup and stood to his full height, turning to face her and clearing his throat. As badly as she wanted to appear tough, she couldn't help herself when he reached for her. She flinched.

"S'what I thought" he said meanly to her.

He went past her into the house and she fumed, doing everything except expelling visible vapor from her nostrils as her temper surged. This wasn't fair. She had gotten away from him, she had left.

"I mean it mac" she yelled, digging as deep as she could for her resolve when she followed him back inside "I want out of here, I want-"

He grabbed her by the throat before she could finish her demand.

"Tryin' ta get me all riled up girl?"

When she sucked in the air to respond he just squeezed harder, and she had to reach up to grab hold of his wrist to get even the tiniest breath in. He smirked at her struggles and pulled her in close, his lips brushing her earlobe.

"I think ya are" he said softly, his voice dripping with awful intentions. "I think yer just making a fuss so that I get upset and tie ya to the bed"

Eddie bucked her whole body, clearly furious, and he just laughed.

"Easy" he coaxed her "easy now"

With his grip on her throat it wasnt hard to pull her flush up against him, and he moaned when her attempts to get free caused their hipbones to bump together. He spun them around so he could force her up against the wall, leaning harder into her and savoring the friction of her legs colliding with his.

"Keep it up" he warned her, burying his face into her neck "I like it when ya fight"

She screamed in frustration and shook her whole body in an all-out effort to get free. She knew if he kept it up, this body contact was eventually going to be her undoing. Her struggles were useless though. Mac was much stronger than she could ever hope to be. He held her there for a moment longer before he released her, collapsing her wind pipe with one final squeeze before he did, and then letting her fall to the floor.

"Ready to make me something ta eat?" He asked the crumpled form at his feet. "Or are ya still set on being a stubborn pain in the ass?"

Hacking on the way the intake of air caught in her damaged throat, Eddie stayed where she was. She coughed and sputtered, choking on the very breath she needed to survive. He nudged her with his boot, gently at first, trying to roll her onto her back. When she resisted, he kicked her shoulder, and she swallowed the air instead of drawing it into her lungs.

"Why ya gotta be so fuckin' difficult Eddie?" He roared down at her, both hands in fists at his side. "Just do what i fucking say"

She was still wheezing, pulling desperately for an uninterrupted breath, when he reached down and grabbed her. He hauled her up, oblivious at the way she tried to stiffen in his grip, and drug her with him towards the kitchen.

Mac threw her into the room, and she caught herself by gripping onto the edge of the table. He followed after her, forcing her into the nearby chair by pushing hard on her shoulder.

"Sit'own" he barked at her. "Wanna explain sumthin to ya"

She was too busy rubbing the injured column of her neck to argue. It took all of her focus just to draw her next breath, and the panic of being unable to hadn't yet faded.

"I ain't askin ya Eddie," Mac told her, his voice calm and deadly. "An I've already given ya three chances"

She counted in her head how many times she had run from him only to have him lug her back. Once he had found her walking, once he had Jamo catch her for him, and then he had tricked her at the bus station. She knew what it meant. According to him, she was all out of strikes.

"You run from me again an imma make it so you can't even walk. Ya got that?"

Eddie stared up at him. He wanted to control her, she could see that now, and it clearly didn't matter what she thought. That didn't mean she wasn't going to give him hell though.


	10. Chapter 10

Y'ALL

I FINALLY FINISHED THIS!

Thanks for being so patient everyone :) and forge-ahead, whoever you are, thank you for the support!

And Krissyg927 ! Without you, i would never be inspired enough to stick with any of my stories. Your Mac fiction gives me the major feels.

Okay :) hope you guys like this. I just finished moving out of my house and had my final shift at work. In a week i meet up with my husband to drive out west to our new life. I'm celebrating with whiskey and Mac. Cheers !

 **XxXxXxXxXx**

"What do you do with a drunken sailor,

What do you do with a drunken sailor,

What do you do with a drunken sailor,

Earl-eye in the morning?"

Eddie sang to herself as loud as she dared, which was hardly above a whisper. Just a puff of air leaving her lungs and passing over her chapped lips. It was the only way she was able to keep her mind clear. She knew that if she stopped to think for too long the fear would spread through her the way fire does a dry field. She could almost smell the smoke of it; it wanted so badly just to burn.

Her breath hitched, the mantra interrupted as her thoughts blazed with just giving in to the panic. It seemed so much easier, just to be consumed.

She filled her lungs with air and tried to convince herself to think of it like a game. All she really had to do at the moment was keep walking, and the rest she could figure out later. Keep walking and stay quiet, she reminded herself.

Then, in the tiniest voice she could manage, she began to chant again.

"What do you do with a drunken sailor,

What do you do with a drunken sailor.."

She moved as stealthily as she could through the thick brush, and she kept her head low to avoid the canopy of branches. There, in a thicket cleared below the waist by animals, she crouched and sometimes even got down on her hands and knees.

"Shave him on the chest with a rusty razor, shave him on the chest with a rusty razor"

When Eddie heard something somewhere off in the distance behind her, she instantly stopped. Her hand was poised a few inches in front of her, frozen mid-crawl, as she waited to see if she had imagined it. She ransacked her mind for the next verse of the song, willing herself to stay calm and trying to convince herself that it wasn't him, that it couldn't possibly be him.

But then she heard it again. The snapping of branches, closer this time, and her lizard brain finally took over. She took off running as fast as could, heedless of the damage she was inflicting on her bare feet and not bothering to stay low.

Thin branches whipped at her face and upper arms. They broke off and stabbed at her skin but she hardly noticed. The only thing she could think about was covering as much ground as possible. It wasn't even a whole thought, more like a pulse or the sound of one single word repeating until it began to drone on into a hum.

She had tapped into her animal instinct; She was running for her life.

XxXxXxXxXxX 

**_\- earlier -_**

"What are you doing?"

"What's it look like I'm doing?"

It was a stupid retort for a stupid question, because it was obvious what he was doing. That didn't make it any easier to understand though, and Eddie's brain kept short-circuiting as she tried to make sense of it. He was standing in front of the window to the room she had slept in, and he was hammering planks of wood across it.

"It looks like you're getting ready for a hurricane"

"Don't give yerself that much credit darlin', yer more like a gentle breeze"

Eddies body reacted for her, moving backwards and away from him on its own accord. He didn't turn to look but he must have sensed what she was doing, because he paused.

"Don't do it Ed"

Her breath hitched in her chest. Her entire body was screaming for her to run, but she somehow managed to keep herself from bolting. She watched him wait and listen. Then he turned to face her, the hammer dangling in his right hand.

"You run from me again an you ain't guna like what happens" he told her in a flat voice.

Part of her wanted to retaliate. She wanted to tell him she wasn't his to boss around or some kind of animal that he could keep kenneled. Another part of her was terrified though, and she didn't want to do anything that might make him mad. Still, she couldn't just not try to protest this. He was boarding up her window, and she knew what that meant.

"how long will you be gone?" She asked cautiously

"Few days" he grumbled. "maybe a week"

His words were like a punch to the stomach; She lost all her breath. If he was expecting to keep her locked in that room the entire time he was gone, then a week was way too long. Even though there was a bathroom attached, and he would most likely leave food for her, she was going to go out of her mind with boredom.

As far as she could tell it was Sunday, and Mac was probably on his way back to Utah so he could be at the garage on time tomorrow morning.

Technically he didn't have to show up at all, since he owned it, but she knew he liked the regimen and the atmosphere. There was something about the smell of concrete soaked with grease, it seemed to settle him.

"Mac, C'mon" she laughed. She was fidgeting, pulling at her thumb nail and lifting her elbows. "Just bring me with you, I-"

The sound of the hammer cut her off. Eddie stopped herself from shouting to be heard. Instead, she retreated back into the into the house and sat at the small table, resting her head in her hands and trying to think past the panic.

If he was going to be gone for that long and she would be unsupervised, then that was her window to escape. She couldn't help but scoff at the way the metaphor sounded like a total slap in the face though; There was no window, not anymore.

Making sure she could still hear the hammer working, she went to check the door of the room he was planning on locking her in. He had installed a deadbolt on the outside of it, so she abandoned the thought of trying to knock the doorknob loose. Instead she focused on the hinges, running her fingers over them and wondering the best way to work them free. The window he was standing at was now totally obscured, so she wasn't worried about him catching her inspecting them. As long as she could still hear him outside of it, she knew just where he was.

She checked her bag to make sure she still had the coconut oil she had packed. She liked to use it on her skin and hair, the parts of her that were always thirsty in the dry, desert heat. Luckily, it was still there, and she stashed it in the small attached bathroom.

Knowing he would realize a screwdriver and hammer were missing, she settled for a butter knife from the kitchen and a small, dense rock she found just outside the front door. She hid them both in the tank of the toilet, praying he wouldn't think to check there.

After she was done, she went back around to pester him. She knew he would be suspicious if she was suddenly eager for him to leave, so instead she tried to pick a fight.

"Do you get paid to be a prick?" She spat at him, her arms folded over her chest and her brow furrowed down. "Or do you just do it for fun?"

He chuckled as he turned around to face her, and it crinkled the skin by his eyes up. The dozens of small lines that formed there were from the accumulated years of squinting in the sun, but it only made him more handsome. He may have been weathered and worn, but the dry heat had aged him just right.

"Sometimes i get paid to be a prick" he nodded at her. "But with you i do it for fun. I like seeing you get all riled"

Eddie rolled her eyes and twisted her lips up. She felt defensive against his confidence. She wanted to give in to his flirting, to smile back and raise her eyebrows in an obvious challenge. As much as the desire tugged at her though, another part of her was unwilling to overlook the fact that he meant to keep her totally trapped. He didn't care about her. He just wanted the convenience her proximity could provide.

"I ain't ever guna fuck you again if you lock me in that room Mac"

She said it without thinking. She just needed something, anything, to threaten him with. It was the only card she had left to play, and she said it with as much conviction as she could.

"Yeah," he replied. He was turning his back to her and nodding casually, as if she had merely commented on the weather. "Yeah, we'll see about that"

XxXxXxXxXxX

She had waited a few hours after he had left to begin the task of loosening the bolts. It proved to be much tougher than she had originally imagined, even with the coconut oil to use as grease, and she spent a lot of time figuring out the best way to approach it. The butter knife kept slipping in her sweaty hands, and her knuckles would bash against the door and hinges each time.

She got frustrated when she couldn't make any progress, and the anxiety of him doubling back to check on her was making her clamp her jaw tight enough to give her a headache.

She kept thinking she heard his truck in the distance and she would freeze, her heart in her throat, as she waited to see if he had tricked her. Her panic kept her up all night, and when she finally pried the bolt free from the lower hinge, she could have wet herself with excitement.

Her panic forced her through the small opening that appeared, a tiny triangle of blackness that waited silently beyond the room she had filled with the sound of her ragged breathing. She practically bent the door in her effort to create the space needed to squeeze through, and it was only once she was out in the hallway that she even thought about her bag.

She got to her feet and threw her hands against the dead bolt, trying to pull it free, but stopped when she realized it had a padlock on it.

"The fuck..." she muttered to herself, wondering who could possibly need a lock on-top of another lock. Then she remembered what she was up against, and she abandoned the bag to go towards the front door.

Peering out the window, making sure the truck was truly gone, Eddie tried to sort through all the moving parts in her mind. She had to get away from him but she didn't know where she was or how to get back to civilization. She had to act fast but she needed to be smart about it. In a matter of minutes, she had already lost her pack because she was panicking and not thinking clearly. She needed to slow down and look for anything that could be useful to her.

She started to rummage through the small cabin for a flashlight but soon abandoned the task. She felt like an animal that had gotten out of its cage but was still sniffing around. She wanted to leave, to put space between her and this place. As soon as she left the incubated space of the cabin and stepped outside though, the urgency receded. Out here in the wind, with the moon throwing shadows up and down the tree line, Eddie felt less confident.

Shapes shifted and the gentle breeze of the day had mustered itself up into a howl. Her bare feet flinched at the feeling of the cold ground beneath them. Eddie gripped the back of her own neck and wrung the muscle in her hands, stalling.

This was new. This wasn't something she felt up to, not even in the slightest. This place had him lurking behind each and every tree in the moving, flexing darkness.

She retreated back inside and sat on the musty old couch. Maybe if he came back and she was still here, even though she had more or less broken the door down, he wouldn't be that mad. After all, she hadn't run away, she had simply gotten out of her confines.

It made her stomach hurt to think that way though, and Eddie knew that he was going to be pissed either way. Besides that, there was still the injustice of being kept here, and it shouldn't be up to her to convince herself of anything.

She argued with herself until the sun came up.

Then, maybe because she had exhausted her instincts and tapped out her wells of adrenaline, she got up and walked calmly into the woods. She faced east, the direction that the sun had risen, and squared her shoulders. After breathing in and exhaling slowly, she shifted her weight forward and began to walk.

XxXxXxXxXx

XxXxXxXxXx

XxXxXxXxXx

She could hear him behind her now, he was calling her name in a sing-song voice, laughing and making his voice echo.

She knew it was already too late. Eddie had never personally hunted with him but she knew people who did. Groups of them would go up to Wyoming or into Colorado every year. She had heard enough stories to know he was an excellent tracker and marksman. They were skills needed to do the thing that Mac craved. He liked hunting a lot, but only because it led to killing.

Eddie threw herself against the trunk of a tree and scrambled up into it. The bark was rough, but she fought gravity fiercely, and she propelled herself upwards into the haven of the branches on pure adrenaline.

It didn't take long for him to come into view. He was walking slow, casually almost, and his posture was relaxed. He looked like he was just going for a walk in the woods, except he was holding a crossbow. He had it in both hands, down low by his stomach, and his eyes were pointed at the ground. After examining the dirt for a moment more, he walked right up to the tree she was perched in.

"Ready?" He rasped.

His voice had lost the playful tone. Now it was the feeling of meeting rock against your back as you retreated, the sudden drop of realizing you're doomed.

"Mac-"

He didn't hesitate in raising the crossbow up and firing. He aimed quick, shutting one eye for precision and bracing his shoulder against the recoil. He felt the pressure give as he squeezed the trigger and heard the sound of the tension releasing.

The bolt struck just where he intended.

Eddie screamed as she tumbled down through the branches she'd climbed up. It cut off abruptly when her head knocked against one, and she landed in a heap at the base of the tree.

She lay still when he walked up to her.

Mac narrowed his eyes and nudged her with his foot. He looked up at the bolt he wasn't going to bother recovering, firmly embedded in the trunk of the tree by where she had held on, and then contemplated kicking her for all the trouble. Eventually however, even though he was tense with irritation, he settled on slinging the weapon onto his back and kneeling down to collect his trophy.

XxXxXxX 

Eddie woke up slow at first. Her head ached something awful, and her eyes were pounding in their sockets.

"Ow" she groaned, trying to bring her hand up to massage them. It was then she felt the restraints biting into her wrists; It was then that she remembered.

Fully awake in an instant, Eddie jerked her arms and legs. Her arms were trapped behind her back at the wrists, but her legs were free. She was laying on her stomach in a room she didn't recognize, and the terror seized her like it had actual jaws.

The ropes sliced into her wrists, but she did her best to keep quiet while she tried to work the knot loose. She shut her eyes and imagined the pressure on her skin giving way, but no matter how she jerked or tried to spin her hands, the rope stayed tight against her.

"Fuck" she said breathlessly when one final twist caught the tiny hairs on her arm. It was hopeless. All she had done was make the restraints tighter.

She took a break and contemplated her options. After a moment, she rolled over onto her back, pinching the bruised skin of her wrists even more when she tried to rock herself up into a sitting position. It was harder than she thought without the use of her arms on the soft surface of the bed though, and she ended up turning onto her side to alleviate the pressure.

Eddie lay there, breathing heavy and willing the softer part of herself not to break down. Just as she was about to try and shimmy her arms over her legs to get them in front of her, she heard the sound of his heavy foot steps stomping towards her.

She started to panic but quickly realized there was nothing she could do to protect herself. If she couldn't get her arms free, then she couldn't run or fight back. She was going to have to wait for him to give her an opportunity.

The footsteps stopped and the door creaked open. Eddie tried to turn her head to look, but the pain in her arms and shoulder blades caused her neck muscles to spasm and then abruptly lock up.

"Mac" she called out.

Nobody answered but the footsteps started again, the scuff of steel toes boots. They stopped when they reached the bed she was laying on.

"Please" she began, unsure of what he wanted her to say. "Mac , I -"

"Told you not to run off again," his gruff voice cut her off. "an i told you what would happen if you did"

"Mac-"

The sound of his belt being undone made her shut up. He was either going to beat her with it, or he was just getting it out of the way so he could force himself on her. Or both.

"Mac !" She tried again, even as she realized it was too late for whatever he was going to do to her. "Mac !"

She tried to flip over so she could see him better, maybe even talk her way out of this, but he put his heavy hand on her shoulder and forced her flat on her stomach. His weight made the mattress sink, and he threw a leg over her to straddle her lower back.

Eddie still couldn't see what he was doing, but this unexpected turn gave her a dizzying state of dread. She had expected either of the other two scenario's, but this new territory sent her back into a blinding animal panic. She couldn't brace herself if she didn't know what was coming.

While he situated himself on top of her, she started begging him, repeating his name over and over and asking him not to do whatever he was gearing up for. His body shifted off towards the side for a moment, but then came right back down, all of his weight keeping her totally immobile.

Instinct told her to thrash but he was too heavy. She buried her face in the bed, resigning herself to being trapped, until she heard a unmistakable sound. It clicked and then made a rushing noise. She knew exactly what it was because she had heard it, countless times before, while sitting on the couch next to him and doing dabs. It was his blow torch, and the sound of it roaring was making her body fill with dread. She could feel it rising in her like water does in a sinking ship.

"Mac!" She gasped out, one final time as he grabbed her left ankle and pulled it towards him. "mac, please"

The only answer she got was the sound of meat hitting a hot pan. A sizzling, searing white heat, that hit the bottom of her foot and sent her world spiraling into black.

XxXxXxXxX

Eddie dreamt she was walking through the desert barefoot, the sand impossibly hot on her feet. She wanted to stop and look at them, to inspect the damage she felt, but she knew that something dangerous was close behind her. She never turned to actually look, but she could hear its breathing getting closer and closer.

When she tried to run, her legs sank into the molten sand, making her slow despite all her efforts. As her legs got deeper, the burning in her feet got hotter. It felt like she was falling through the earth and into hell.

She woke up panting, drenched in sweat and something foul smelling. She tried to shift her weight and immediately sent daggers stabbing into the soles of her feet. Unable to help herself, she cried out at the pain, slamming her head back down and doing her best to lay still so it would pass. The lights in the room were off, but the barely risen sun illuminated the space just enough for her to gently examine and discover the cause of her agony.

There, etched into the ruined skin on the underside of both her feet like a cattle brand, was the outline of his signature belt buckle.

 **The end**

:)

I have a few ideas for a part 2 though :-p lemme know what you think!


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